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.
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.
Introduction
Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, and Franēoise Lavocat
Part I: Believing in Fiction: Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives
1 Belief, Imagination, and the Nature of Fiction
Stacie Friend
2 The Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The Long History of a Short Phrase
Nicholas D. Paige
3 The Fictionality of Games and the Ludic Nature of Fiction: Make-Believe,
Immersion, Play
Marie-Laure Ryan
4 Fictional Emotions and Belief
Eva-Maria Konrad
5 Fictional Characters and Belief
Thomas Pavel
6 Fictionality, the Zone of Generic Fiction, and the Allure of Unreliable
Narration
James Phelan
7 Belief Is a Mess. That Makes It Good for Fiction. (A Perspective from
Cognitive Literary Theory)
Lisa Zunshine
8 Fiction and Historiography
Annick Louis
9 Fiction and Scientific Knowledge
Adam Toon
10 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
11 Do Fictions Impact Peoples Beliefs? A Critical View
Edgar Dubourg and Nicolas Baumard
12 The Impact of Fiction on Beliefs about Gender
Vera Nünning
13 Implicit Bias, Fiction, and Belief
Kris Goffin and Agnes Moors
14 Childrens Ideas about Stories and about Reality
Ayse Payir and Paul L. Harris
15 From Suspension of Disbelief to Production of Belief: The Case of
Alternate Reality Games
Patrick Jagoda
16 Interactive Environments and Fictional Engagement
Olivier Caļra
17 Fake News and Fictional News
Jessica Pepp, Rachel Sterken, and Eliot Michaelson
18 Trust, Credulity, and Speech
Philippe Roussin
19 Literature on Credit: Fiction and the Fiduciary Paradigm
Emmanuel Bouju and Loļse Lelevé
20 Fifth-Generation Fictionality? Fiction, Politics, War
Henrik Zetterberg-Nielsen
21 Uses of Fantasy Fiction in Contemporary Political Mobilization
Anne Besson
22 Fiction, Belief, and Postcolonial Criticism
Alok Yadav
23 Can Fictions Predict the Future?
Anne Duprat
24 Dystopian Fictions and Contemporary Fears
Jean-Paul Engélibert
25 Fiction, Belief, and Climate Change: Paratexts, Skeptics, and Objects of
Care
Erin James
Part III: Fiction and Religious Belief 337
26 Greek Mythology: Discourse, Belief, and Ritual Action
Claude Calame
27 Fiction and Belief: Approaching Medieval Latin Christendom
Julie Orlemanski
28 Literary Fictions, Fables, and Unbelief in the West
Nicolas Correard
29 Saints, Between Faith, Belief, and Fiction
Barbara Selmeci Castioni
30 The Role of Fiction in Buddhist Hagiography: The Case of Shinran
Markus Rüsch
31 Fiction and Belief in Ancient and Early Medieval India
Isabelle Ratié
32 Fiction, Religion, and Premodern Arab-Islamic Literature
(EighthEighteenth Centuries)
Aboubakr Chraļbi
33 Fiction against Belief and Belief in Fiction in Modern and Contemporary
Arabic Literature
Čve de Dampierre-Noiray
34 On Jewish Fiction and Belief: Duplicity, Parables, Confession
Sarah Hammerschlag
35 Religious Uses of Fantasy Fiction
Markus Altena Davidsen
36 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.
Franēoise 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.