This chapter presents some general observations on the notion of fiction. It uses a discussion of two positions from extreme corners of currently fashionable theories of fiction as an occasion for these reflections. These are poststructuralist anti-realism or ‘textualism’, and the ‘mimesis as make-believe’ theory that is so influential in analytical aesthetics. These positions were chosen because they are considered excellent representatives of two popular ways of approaching the relationship between reality and fiction: the ‘radical’ one of dismissing the distinction altogether and the ‘conservative’ one of accepting it wholeheartedly and then going on to contrast them such that fiction is turned into an imaginary version of the real world. In explaining why these two approaches are inadequate, the chapter brings into view a few basic constraints on how to explain what we are saying when we describe a work of literature as fictional. It concludes with a call to ‘openness’ in the theory of fiction — that is, with an invitation to explore the various ways in which the frame of the fictional can be, or should be, understood to keep open a window on the real.
Keywords: reality, fiction, textualism, mimesis as make-believe theory, poststructuralist anti-realism