Belief, imagination, and the nature of fiction

Stacie Friend

doi:10.4324/9781003119456-3

Belief, imagination, and the nature of fiction

Stacie Friend^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract / Description of output

We classify novels, short stories, many films, some ballets, and so on, as works of fiction, and histories, biographies, newspaper articles, documentaries, and so on, as works of nonfiction. How should we distinguish these categories? The most popular philosophical definitions of fiction today maintain that they are distinguished by the attitudes they invite: whereas nonfiction invites belief, fiction invites imagining. In this chapter I consider these and related theories of fiction, as well as reasons to be skeptical that fiction can be defined by the contrast between imagination and belief.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Routledge Handbook of Fiction and Belief
Editors	Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, Françoise Lavocat
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
Chapter	1
Pages	15-27
Number of pages	13
Edition	1
ISBN (Electronic)	9781003119456
ISBN (Print)	9780367635152
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003119456-3
Publication status	Published - 22 Dec 2023

Publication series

Name	Routledge Literature Handbooks
Publisher	Routledge Taylor & Francis Group

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10.4324/9781003119456-3

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Belief, imagination, and the nature of fiction

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