Fiction as Representation. Or the Verbal Icon Revisited

Zusammenfassung

ABSTRACT. In this paper, I shall argue for the representational character of literaryfiction. The aim is not to defend a theory of fiction as representation but to highlightthe iconic or experiential nature of literary fiction. Drawing mainly on Beardsley(1981, 1982) and Matravers (2014), I shall outline a notion of representation that helpsto make sense of literary fiction as a specific kind of representation or verbaldepiction. Literary language gives presence, vitality, and force to the representedworld, but verbal representation like visual representation requires the imaginativecollaboration of the reader. In addition to grasping the linguistic meaning of the text,the reader must make sense of the actions and attitudes of the characters and considerthem, together with situations and events from the author’s point of view. Imaginativecollaboration involves more than adopting a propositional attitude of make-believetowards the sentences’ content. It also encompasses mental activities such asvisualising, empathising, responding emotionally, and entertaining expectations anddesires in response to the represented content. As it is often defended, it is in thereader’s experience that the world of a novel comes into existence. This is not to saythat the reader creates the work; rather in understanding a literary work, the reader’sexperience is closely tied to the mode of presentation and perspective of the work