Can Fiction Change the World?

Edited by Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, and Françoise Lavocat

Transcript 29

Legenda

22 January 2023  •  282pp

ISBN: 978-1-839541-45-2 (hardback)  •  RRP £95, $120, €120

ISBN: 978-1-839541-46-9 (paperback, forthcoming)

ISBN: 978-1-839541-47-6 (JSTOR ebook)

Access online: Books@JSTOR

FictionHistoryPolitics


Can fiction change the world? Does it in fact do so? From Don Quixote’s delusions to Emma Bovary’s romantic daydreams, fiction has often portrayed its own effects in negative terms, while contemporary anxieties about video games or virtual worlds revive ancient fears of the confusion between fiction and reality. Beyond these representations and denunciations, there is ample evidence of the influence of fictional universes on real lives, identities, and social practices. Drawn from varied cultures and media, the examples studied here include the political fictions of premodern Japan, uses of fiction in legal cases, and contemporary activist fanfiction. They illustrate the effects of fiction at different scales, from the paradoxes of individual emotional response to large-scale collective action.

Alison James is Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago, Akihiro Kubo is Professor in the School of Humanities at Kwansei Gakuin University, and Françoise Lavocat is Professor of Comparative Literature at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle.

Contents:

ix-ix

Acknowledgements
Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, Françoise Lavocat
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.3

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x-xiv

Notes On the Contributors
Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, Françoise Lavocat
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.4

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1-14

Introduction
Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, Françoise Lavocat
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.5

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17-30

Poetic Forms of Narrative and Pragmatic Fiction: Poiein — Plattein — Prattein
Claude Calame
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.6

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31-44

The Fiction of Factuality: Some Perspectives from Premodern Japan
Judit Árokay
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.7

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45-52

For a Theory of Fiction as Show, Performance, Entertainment
Yasusuke Oura
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.8

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55-68

The Moral Problem of Fiction: Rethinking the Emotional Effects of Fictional Characters
Mario Slugan
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.9

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69-84

Lucianic Fictions and the Rise of Unbelief
Nicolas Correard
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.10

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85-96

Fiction and the Modelling of Chance
Anne Duprat
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.11

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97-108

Pygmalion’s Virtual Doll: The Case of a Real Metalepsis?
Nathalie Kremer
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.12

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111-128

Etiquette to ‘Change the World’?: Fictional Time-Order and Imperial Power at the Court of Emperor Go-Daigo
Simone Müller
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.13

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129-140

The Construction of the Nation by Theatrical Fiction
Charlotte Krauss
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.14

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141-154

Feminist Resistance and the Powers of Fiction
Anne Isabelle François
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.15

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155-164

Engagement and Enchantment: Political and Ethical Uses of Fantasy Fictions
Anne Besson
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.16

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165-176

Fiction or Death: The Latin American Tradition of Nonfiction
Annick Louis
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.17

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177-190

Fiction as Legal Authority?: Orwell, Snowden, and State Cyber-Surveillance
Henriette Korthals Altes
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.18

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191-202

Legal Revolutions as Fictions: Do they Change the World?
Otto Pfersmann
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.19

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205-218

Quixotism as a Humorous Reflection on Fiction’s Effects
Yen-Mai Tran-Gervat
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.20

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219-230

Metafiction in Japanese and Western Literature: Chô-kyokô and Meta-Mystery
Masahiro Iwamatsu
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.21

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231-240

Killing the Reader?: On Some Unfortunate Side Effects of Reading
Maxime Decout
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.22

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241-248

When Fiction Changes the World... of Fiction
Frank Wagner
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.23

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249-256

Abstracts
Frank Wagner
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.24

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257-258

Further Reading
Frank Wagner
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.25

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259-268

Index
Frank Wagner
doi:10.2307/jj.667666.26

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Bibliography entry:

James, Alison, Akihiro Kubo, and Françoise Lavocat (eds), Can Fiction Change the World?, Transcript, 29 (Legenda, 2023)

First footnote reference: 35 Can Fiction Change the World?, ed. by Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, and Françoise Lavocat, Transcript, 29 (Legenda, 2023), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 James, Kubo, and Lavocat, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

James, Alison, Akihiro Kubo, and Françoise Lavocat (eds). 2023. Can Fiction Change the World?, Transcript, 29 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (James, Kubo, and Lavocat 2023: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 James, Kubo, and Lavocat 2023: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)


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