Abstract
Abstract The argument of Chapter 4 is defended against a number of objections: that not all novels require emotional involvement (true), that we do not in fact react to novels in a bodily way (false), that I ignore authorial manipulation (I don't ), that some emotional responses are inappropriate (they are), and that according to the so-called ‘paradox of fiction’, it is irrational to respond emotionally to fictional characters when we are perfectly aware that they are fictional. The answer to the paradox of fiction is that we process novels both cognitively and affectively. Our instinctive affective appraisal system is indifferent to whether or not stimulus for emotion exists or not. Persons can get emotionally worked up by imagined and remembered events and people as well as by actual people right in front of them.
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