Matters of Fact and Fiction

A popular way to draw the line between fiction and nonfiction is in terms of facts: while works of nonfiction purport to tell the truth about the real world, works of fiction trade in the merely invented and imagined.This contrast between fiction and fact is familiar in popular culture and literary studies, and it also explains the philosophical focus on certain puzzles.What are we thinking about when we think about fictional characters?How can we make true claims about them? Why do we become emotionally involved with people who never existed?What can we learn from fictions if they are false? These questions are motivated by the assumption that fiction constitutes a domain essentially opposed to reality. In opposition to this familiar landscape, Matters of Fact and Fiction argues that the contrast between fiction and fact is fundamentally misguided.Instead, works of fiction are about reality, even if they invite us to imagine it differently from how it actually is.To make this argument