INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

Narrative Factuality: A Handbook, 2019

2018

Possible and narrative worlds are traditionally the most influential tools for explaining our understanding of fiction. One obvious implication of this is considering fiction as a matter of pretence. The theory I offer claims that it is a mistake to take truth as a substantial notion. This view rejects possible worlds and pretence as decisive features in dealing with fiction. Minimalist theory of fiction offers a solution that gives a way to combine a philosophical theory of meaning and views of literary theory. Narrative worlds approach saves its usefulness since its focus is more in the psychological process of reading. Minimalist theory of fiction is based on the minimal theory of truth and the use theory of meaning. The idea of language games as a practice of constructing contextual meanings is also decisive. A sentence is not true because it corresponds to a fact but because it is used in a right way in certain circumstances. The rejection of the possible worlds approach is thu...

European Journal of Life Writing, 2012

Aesthetic Investigation, 2019

Genre-defying literary pieces of creative nonfiction, the move in journalism towards infotainment and a rapid rise in other such hybrid forms of literature are straining the already blurred line between truth and fiction. Thus, enhancing the post-modernist viewpoint of relative truth, as they argue, that there are no facts; only points of view; only 'takes' on reality, influenced by our personal histories, our cultures, our social classes, our race and gender. 1 Truth relativism is the doctrine that there are no absolute truths, i.e., that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture. 2 Although this is a very debatable notion in terms of philosophy, it can also be understood in the field of literature. Literature-being a field where its entire works are broadly classified into fiction and nonfiction-expands on this notion as each literary work can be interpreted in a different way according to the interpreters' viewpoint, bringing up the concept of literary relativism. 3 Subsequently, I will attempt to study a short story-'The Door in the Wall' 4 to present my viewpoint on the subject of the line between truth and fiction.

2019

One of the most important debates within the philosophy of literature concerns the cognitive value of literature and whether this value must be considered crucial for literary appreciation. Generally, the cognitive value of literature is understood in terms of truth and knowledge. In this way, literature is often brought into competition with science. One can argue, for example, as did Morris Weitz and John Hospers, among others, that literature offers us truth in the same way that science does, namely by offering the reader propositions that can be judged for their truth value.1 According to this view, just like scientific work, literature may contain true propositions about, for example, the human condition or the world in which we live. This can be done explicitly, when a reader acquires knowledge about, for example, the historical period in which a story is set, or when they learn something about life by reading a phrase such as ‘all the world’s a stage and all the men and women...

Critical Inquiry, 1977

2019

In philosophical discussions of literature, there is a great deal of discussion about what’s been termed “the paradox of fiction”: how is it that we can be emotionally moved by characters that we know are not real? But an important related problem might be called the paradox of fact from fiction: how can an invented fictional world give us knowledge about the real one? In this essay I will look carefully at how fictional worlds could possibly tell us about real ones, and whether they, in fact, tends to do so. I then discuss ideas about how we might change how fiction is taught, in light of these conclusions.