Edges of Fiction

Aristotle's Poetics argued that fiction is distinguished from ordinary experience by a surfeit of rationality, which overturns the ordinary course of events and shows how the unexpected arises, happiness transforms into unhappiness, and ignorance into knowledge. In the modern age, the social sciences extended the model of causal linkage to all spheres of human action, while literature destroyed its principles by abolishing the limits that circumscribed a reality peculiar to fiction. This book explores these constructions and sheds new light on the constitutive movement of modern fiction, which shifted its center of gravity from its traditional core toward those edges in which fiction gets confronted with its possible revocation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 180 pages
Publication date: 04 October 2019
Publisher: Polity Press

Fiction stands apart from ordinary experience not due to a lack of reality but rather due to an abundance of rationality, as argued by Aristotle in his Poetics. The rationality of fiction lies in the inversion of appearances, where the unexpected emerges, happiness transforms into unhappiness, and ignorance into knowledge. In the modern age, this fictional rationality has undergone significant development. The social sciences have expanded the model of causal linkage to encompass all aspects of human action, seeking to demonstrate how causes produce their effects by inverting appearances and expectations. On the other hand, literature has taken a different path. Instead of democratizing fictional rationality to include all human activity within the realm of rational knowledge, it has undermined its principles by abolishing the boundaries that define a reality unique to fiction. It has aligned itself with the rhythms of everyday life and tapped into the power of the "random moment," where an entire life is condensed.

In both the avowed fictions of literature and the unavowed fictions of politics, social science, or journalism, the central question revolves around constructing the perceptible forms of a shared world. This book explores these constructions, drawing from a wide range of authors such as Stendhal, João Guimarães Rosa, Marx, Sebald, Balzac, Poe, Maupassant, Proust, Rilke, Conrad, Auerbach, Faulkner, and others. By examining these works, the book sheds new light on the constitutive movement of modern fiction, which has shifted its center of gravity from its traditional core towards the edges where fiction confronts its potential revocation.

Weight: 252g
Dimension: 214 x 138 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781509530458