The Routledge Handbook of Fiction and Belief offers a fresh reevaluation of the relationship between fiction and belief, surveying key debates and perspectives from a range of disciplines including narrative and cultural studies, science, religion, and politics. This volume draws on global, cutting edge research and theory to investigate the historically variable understandings of fictionality, and allows readers to grasp the role of fictions in our understanding of the world.

This interdisciplinary approach provides a thorough introduction to the fundamental themes of:

Theoretical and Philosophical Perspectives on Fiction
Fiction, Fact, and Science
Social Effects and Uses of Fiction
Fiction and Politics
Fiction and Religion

Questioning how fictions in fact shape, mediate or distort our beliefs about the real world, essays in this volume outline the state of theoretical debates from the perspectives of literary theory, philosophy, sociology, religious studies, history, and the cognitive sciences. It aims to take stock of the real or supposed effects that fiction has on the world, and to offer a wide-reaching reflection on the implications of belief in fictions in the so-called “post-truth” era

Contents

Introduction

Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, and Françoise Lavocat

Part I: Believing in Fiction: Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives

Belief, Imagination, and the Nature of Fiction

Stacie Friend

The "Willing Suspension of Disbelief": The Long History of a Short Phrase

Nicholas Paige

The Fictionality of Games and the Ludic Nature of Fiction: Make-believe, Immersion, Play

Marie-Laure Ryan

Fictional Emotions and Belief

Eva-Maria Konrad

Fictional Characters and Belief

Thomas Pavel

Fictionality, the Zone of Generic Fiction, and the Allure of Unreliable Narration

James Phelan

Belief is a Mess. That Makes it Good for Fiction. (A Perspective from Cognitive Literary Theory)

Lisa Zunshine

Fiction and Historiography

Annick Louis

Fiction and Scientific Knowledge

Adam Toon

Learning from Fiction

Gregory Currie, Heather Ferguson, Jacopo Frascaroli, Stacie Friend, Kayleigh Green, and Lena Wimmer

Part II: From Fiction to Belief: Social and Political Effects

Do Fictions Impact People’s Beliefs? A Critical View

Nicolas Baumard and Edgar Dubourg

The Impact of Fiction on Beliefs about Gender

Vera Nünning

Implicit Bias, Fiction, and Belief

Kris Goffin and Agnes Moors

Children’s Ideas about Stories and about Reality

Ayse Payir and Paul L. Harris

From Suspension of Disbelief to Production of Belief: The Case of Alternate Reality Games

Patrick Jagoda

Interactive Environments and Fictional Engagement

Olivier Caïra

Fake News and Fictional News

Jessica Pepp, Rachel Sterken and Eliot Michaelson

Trust, Credulity, and Speech

Philippe Roussin

Literature on Credit: Fiction and the Fiduciary Paradigm

Emmanuel Bouju

Fifth Generation Fictionality? Fiction, Politics, War

Henrik Zetterberg-Nielsen

Uses of Fantasy Fiction in Contemporary Political Mobilization

Anne Besson

Fiction, Belief, and Postcolonial Criticism

Alok Yadav

Can Fictions Predict the Future?

Anne Duprat

Dystopian Fictions and Contemporary Fears

Jean-Paul Engélibert

Fiction, Belief, and Climate Change: Paratexts, Skeptics, and Objects of Care

Erin James

Part III: Fiction and Religious Belief

Greek Mythology: Discourse, Belief, and Ritual Action

Claude Calame

Fiction and Belief: Approaching Medieval Latin Christendom

Julie Orlemanski

Literary Fictions, Religious "Fables," and Unbelief in the West

Nicolas Correard

Saints, Between Faith, Belief, and Fiction

Barbara Selmeci Castioni

The Role of Fiction in Buddhist Hagiography: The Case of Shinran

Markus Rüsch

Fiction and Belief in Ancient and Early Medieval India

Isabelle Ratié

Fiction, Religion, and Pre-Modern Arab-Islamic Literature (8th–18th Centuries)

Aboubakr Chraïbi

Fiction against Belief and Belief in Fiction in Modern Arabic Literature

Ève de Dampierre-Noiray

On Jewish Fiction and Belief: Duplicity, Parables, Confession

Sarah Hammerschlag

Religious Uses of Fantasy Fiction

Markus Altena Davidsen

Fake Cults, Hyper-Real Religions, Virtual Beliefs at the Crossroads of Fiction, the Sacred, and Technology

Lionel Obadia

—

Alison James is Professor of French at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include the Oulipo group, the contemporary novel, theories and representations of everyday life, documentary literature, and questions of fact and fiction.

Akihiro Kubo is Professor of French Literature at Kwansei Gakuin University. His research interests focus on twentieth-century French literature and theories of literature.

Françoise Lavocat is Professor of Comparative Literature at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle. She received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Chicago, and is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France as well as a member and section chair in the Academia Europaea.

Concerned with the nature of the medium and the borders between fact and fiction, reflexivity was a ubiquitous feature of modernist and postmodernist literature and film. While in the wake of the post-postmodern “return to the real” cultural criticism has little time for discussions of reflexivity, it remains a key topic in narratology, as does fictionality. The latter is commonly defined opposition to the real and the factual, but remains conditioned by historical, cultural, discursive, and medium-related factors. Reflexivity blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction, however, by giving fiction a factual edge or by questioning the limits of factuality in non-fictional discourses. Fictionality, factuality, and reflexivity thus constitute a complex triangle of concepts, yet they are rarely considered together. This volume fills this gap by exploring the intricacies of their interactions and interdependence in philosophy, literature, film, and digital media, providing insights into a broad range of their manifestations from the ancient times to today, from East Asia through Europe to the Americas.

• In collaboration with: Graham Priest and Richard Saint-Gelais
• Edited by: Erika Fülöp

Dirigé par Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, et Françoise Lavocat

La fiction peut-elle changer le monde ? Le fait-elle réellement ? Des délires de Don Quichotte aux rêveries romantiques d'Emma Bovary, la fiction a souvent dépeint ses propres effets en termes négatifs, tandis que les anxiétés contemporaines concernant les jeux vidéo ou les mondes virtuels ravivent les anciennes craintes de la confusion entre fiction et réalité. Au-delà de ces représentations et dénonciations, il existe de nombreuses preuves de l'influence des univers fictionnels sur les vies réelles, les identités et les pratiques sociales. Tirés de cultures et de médias variés, les exemples étudiés ici incluent les fictions politiques du Japon prémoderne, les utilisations de la fiction dans les affaires juridiques et la fanfiction activiste contemporaine. Ils illustrent les effets de la fiction à différentes échelles, des paradoxes de la réponse émotionnelle individuelle à l'action collective à grande échelle.

Alison James est professeure au Département de Langues et Littératures Romanes de l'Université de Chicago, Akihiro Kubo est professeur à l'École des Humanités de l'Université Kwansei Gakuin, et Françoise Lavocat est professeure de Littérature Comparée à l'Université Sorbonne Nouvelle.