Fiction a philosophical analysis / Catharine Abell.

Author/creator Abell, Catharine
Other author Oxford University Press.
Format Electronic
EditionFirst edition.
Publication InfoOxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2020.
Descriptionx, 198 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Supplemental ContentFull text available from Oxford Scholarship Online
Subjects

Summary By taking a distinctively institutional approach, Catharine Abell provides a unified solution to a wide range of philosophical problems raised by fiction. In particular, she draws attention to the epistemology of fiction, which has not yet attracted the philosophical scrutiny it warrants. There has been considerable discussion of what determines the contents of works of fiction, yet few attempts have been made to explain how audiences identify their contents, or to identify the norms governing the correct understanding and interpretation of them. This book answers both metaphysical and epistemological questions concerning fiction in a way that clarifies the relation between them: What distinguishes works of fiction from works of non-fiction? What is the nature of fictive utterances? How do audiences identify the contents of authors' fictive utterances? How does understanding a work of fiction differ from interpreting it? This book develops the first single theory to provide answers to these questions and many more.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 191-193) and index.
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2019920870
ISBN9780198831525 (hardback)
ISBN0198831528 (hardback)