Fact and fiction
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Screenshot from A Trip to the Moon (1902) Georges Méliès
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Imaginary gardens with real toads in them. --Marianne Moore The mind of man can imagine nothing which has not really existed --Edgar Allan Poe, 1840 Truth is stranger than fiction "Fact and fiction are old acquaintances. They are both derivatives of Latin words. Fact comes from facere--to make or do. Fiction comes from fingere--to make or shape." --Elements of Fiction (1968) by Robert Scholes |
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This page explores the tension field between fact and fiction, which are often seen as opposites, see unity of opposites.
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Literature
The truth of fiction
Literary works also pose issues concerning truth and the philosophy of language. In educated opinion, at least, it is commonly reputed as true that Sherlock Holmes lived in London. It is also considered true that Samuel Pepys lived in London. Yet Sherlock Holmes never lived anywhere at all; he is a fictional character, he never existed. Samuel Pepys, contrarily, is judged to have been a real person. Contemporary interest in Holmes and in Pepys share strong similarities; the only reason why anyone knows either of their names is because of an abiding interest in reading about their alleged deeds and words. These two statements would appear to belong to two different orders of truth. Further problems arise concerning the truth value of statements about fictional worlds and characters that can be implied but are nowhere explicitly stated by the sources for our knowledge about them, such as Sherlock Holmes had only one head or Sherlock Holmes never travelled to the moon.
See also
- Lasciva nobis pagina, vita proba
- Semi-autobiographical
- Author surrogate
- Alter ego
- Fictionalization
- Fact and fiction in fiction
In history
General terms
- Authenticity
- Documentary
- Fact
- Faction
- Fiction
- Imaginary
- Map-territory relation
- Myth
- Nonexistence
- Truth
See also
