Fictional, Metafictional, Parafictional

François Recanati (1)

1 IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod

Fictional uses of fictional proper names are the uses one finds in the fiction in which the names in question are introduced. Such uses are not genuinely referential : they rest on pretence. Metafictional uses of proper names ('Sherlock Holmes was created by Doyle in 1887') are genuinely referential : they refer to a cultural artefact. In the paper I discuss a third type of use of fictional names : parafictional uses, illustrated by 'In the story, Holmes is a clever detective'. I try to steer a middle course between two approaches, one that assimilates them to metafictional uses, and another one that assimilates them to fictional uses.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Philosophie

François Recanati. Fictional, Metafictional, Parafictional. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 2018, 118 (1), pp.25-54. ⟨10.1093/arisoc/aoy001⟩. ⟨hal-02932340⟩