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For the past twenty years there has been a virtual consensus in philosophy that there is a special link between fiction and the imagination. In particular, fiction has been defined in terms of the imagination: what it is for something to be fictional is that there is some requirement that a reader imagine it. Derek Matravers argues that this rests on a mistake; the proffered definitions of 'the imagination' do not link it with fiction but with representations more
generally. In place of the flawed consensus, he offers an account of what it is to read, listen to, or watch a narrative whether that narrative is fictional or non-fictional. The view that emerges,
which draws extensively on work in psychology, downgrades the divide between fiction and non-fiction and largely dispenses with the imagination. In the process, he casts new light on a succession of issues: on the 'paradox of fiction', on the issue of fictional narrators, on the problem of 'imaginative resistance', and on the nature of our engagement with film.
For the past twenty years there has been a virtual consensus in philosophy that there is a special link between fiction and the imagination. In particular, fiction has been defined in terms of the imagination: what it is for something to be fictional is that there is some requirement that a reader imagine it. Derek Matravers argues that this rests on a mistake; the proffered definitions of 'the imagination' do not link it with fiction but with representations more
generally. In place of the flawed consensus, he offers an account of what it is to read, listen to, or watch a narrative whether that narrative is fictional or non-fictional. The view that emerges,
which draws extensively on work in psychology, downgrades the divide between fiction and non-fiction and largely dispenses with the imagination. In the process, he casts new light on a succession of issues: on the 'paradox of fiction', on the issue of fictional narrators, on the problem of 'imaginative resistance', and on the nature of our engagement with film.
1: Introduction
2: Walton on Fiction
3: Fiction and the Imagination
4: The Real Distinction
5: Understanding Narratives
6: Engaging with Narratives
7: Narrative and Belief
8: The (so-called) Paradox of Fiction
9: Narrators, Impossible Fictions, and the 'Fictionality
Puzzle'
10: Coda: Film
After taking Philosophy for his first degree at University College London, Derek Matravers went on to complete his doctorate at Cambridge. He was a Post-Doctoral Lecturer at Cambridge, before moving to the Open University in 1994 where he is now Professor. He continues his links with Cambridge, where he is a Senior Member of Darwin College. He has published extensively on aesthetics, and to a lesser extent on ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of mind.
An excellent, ambitious book, there is no doubt that Fiction and
Narrative Narrative will make many of us think a little harder
about these two pesky categories.
*Anna Christina Ribeiro, The Philosophical Quarterly*
... philosophising about fiction will take a huge jolt from
Matravers' book. It challenges some fundamental assumptions and is
rich in careful, probing argument. No one in the field can afford
to ignore it. It is original, hard-hitting and will awaken many of
us from our dogmatic slumber.
*Peter Lamarque, Mind*
This book is a total game changer for anyone interested in the
philosophy of fiction, aesthetics, and narrative ... a natural next
step in the genealogy of our explanations about our engagement with
fiction as well as an excellent theoretical framework for making
sense of fiction, nonfiction, and understanding narrative ...
Although Walton, Currie, and Lamarque and Olsen have commented on
their critics for the past 25 years, I believe that Matravers has
posed the most significant challenge to the âconsensus viewâ since
Walton's Mimesis as Make-Believe
*Sarah Worth, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism*
Fiction and Narrative is a concise work that consists of short
chapters tightly packed with arguments; yet, it manages to do a
lot. In addition to providing an intriguing theoretical
reorientation, the book has substantial value in clarifying (and
questioning) recent debates around fiction
*Jukka Mikkonen, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews*
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