Title

BOUNDARIES BETWEEN FICTION AND FACT IN THE LIGHT OF THE THREE LEVEL COMPARATIVE STUDIES

Author(s)

Françoise Lavocat

Information about the author(s)

Information about the author: Françoise Lavocat, Professor of New Sorbonne Paris 3, Department of World and Comparative Literature, Co-chair of the Center for Comparative Studies, 17, rue de la Sorbonne 75230 Paris, France. E-mail: francoise.lavocat@univ-paris3.fr

Received

August 25, 2016

Published

December 25, 2016

Issue

№3-4

Department

Literary Theory

Pages

29-42

DOI

DOI: 10.22455/2500-4247-2016-1-3-4-29-42

UDK

УДК 82.0

BBK

ББК 83.0

Abstract

The author’s aim is to reconsider the difference between fact and

fiction in diachronic, comparative, and interdisciplinary perspective. The study

covers a long period, mainly from the 17 th Century to the present time, drawing

on literary studies but also on law studies and cognitive science. A comparative

methodology it employs counterpoises artefacts pertaining to different times,

cultural epochs, and geographies (paying attention to the tension between the

Far East and the Western world, in particular) as well as to different media.

Considering these multiple dimensions, fiction is understood as a trans-histor-

ical, transcultural, and trans-medial phenomenon. The author defines fiction as

a possible world that has its own peculiar ontology and focuses on a cluster of

related questions including fictional characters, paradox and “metalepsis,” a rhe-

torical figure that reinforces the boundary between fact and fiction as it creates

the illusion of crossing it.

Keywords

Keywords: Fact, fiction, comparatism, possible worlds, paradox, metalepsis.

Works cited

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