What Is Unreliable in Fiction and Where It Comes From

Abstract

Maier’s article recalls the idea of finding common ground between different points of view on the truth in fiction and the problem of reliability that it generates. However, the criteria by which it is possible to determine the characteristics of the reliability or unreliability in the artistic narrative are unclear. A naive-realistic approach leads to contradictions. We propose to proceed from the already established approaches to the problem of “truth in fiction”, and consider as determining for the modal pragmasemantics of narrative the concept of narrator bifurcated between the actual and fictional worlds.