American Journal of Philology

Pseudo-documentarism is a strategy in which an author claims—with varying degrees of irony—to have discovered an authentic document which he transmits to his readers. This article explores three texts of pseudo-documentary fiction from the Imperial period (Dictys’Journal of the Trojan War, Antonius Diogenes’The Wonders Beyond Thule, and Lucian’s True Histories). By suggesting ways in which the implied readers of these texts may be relatable to “real,” exodiegetic readers, the article illustrates how pseudo-documentarism reflects aspects of the contemporary literary and cultural Zeitgeist.