Fictionality

Does fiction enhance reality or threaten our sense of what is real? Today we speak casually of parallel universes and virtual reality; how much do we really know about what these phenomena involve?In Fictionality, Karen Petroski explains how philosophers and literary theorists have approached these questions in the Western literary tradition from Greek antiquity to the present day. What, if anything, is special about experiencing fictional works and worlds?

The book introduces readers to both long-running and contemporary debates about:The value and dangers of engagement with fiction;The origins of fictional artworks, especially literary works, in Western literature;The role played by imagination in engaging with fiction;The peculiarities of fictional "worlds";The structure of linguistic reference within fictional artworks;The functions