Non-Fictional Narrators in Fictional Narratives

British Journal of Aesthetics 57 (4):389-405 (2017)
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Abstract

This paper is about non-fictional objects in fictions and their role as narrators. Two central claims are advanced. In part 1 it is argued that non-fictional objects such as you and me can be part of fictions. This commonsensical idea is elaborated and defended against objections. Building on it, it is argued in part 2 that non-fictional objects can be characters and narrators in fictional narratives. As a consequence, three fundamental and popular claims concerning narrators are rejected. In particular, it is shown that some fictional narratives have non-fictional internal narrators, some have no internal fictional narrator, and, most controversially, that the author of a fictional narrative can be identical to its internal narrator.

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Author's Profile

Christian Folde
Universität Hamburg

Citations of this work

No Trouble with Poetic Licence: a reply to Xhignesse.Nathan Wildman & Christian Folde - 2018 - British Journal of Aesthetics 58 (3):319-326.

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References found in this work

Creatures of Fiction.Peter van Inwagen - 1977 - American Philosophical Quarterly 14 (4):299 - 308.
Imagining Fact and Fiction.Stacie Friend - 2008 - In Kathleen Stock & Katherine Thomsen-Jones (eds.), New Waves in Aesthetics. Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 150-169.
Against the ubiquity of fictional narrators.Andrew Kania - 2005 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 63 (1):47–54.
Fictional Surrogates.Ioan-Radu Motoarca - 2014 - Philosophia 42 (4):1033-1053.
Referential and Attributive.John R. Searle - 1979 - The Monist 62 (2):190-208.

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