The Nature of Fiction

Abstract

Drawing upon extreme intentionalism, a theory of fiction is built, arguing that a fiction is a set of instructions to a reader, instructing her to imagine various things. Call this ‘the basic claim’. This view is defended against those, such as Gregory Currie, Peter Lamarque and Stein Olsen, and David Davies, who would agree with the basic claim as one condition of fiction, but who would argue that a theory of fiction also needs additional conditions. It is also defended against those, such as Stacie Friend and Derek Matravers, who would reject even that basic claim. Finally there is a consideration of what to say about less straightforward cases, such as split narrative, ‘ambiguous fictions’, ‘fictions within fictions’, unreliable narration, and those cases where a fictional character appears as such in a fiction.