Description:
A collection of essays, written for this volume by leaders in the field, that study the emotional and cognitive significance of narrative and its implications for aesthetics and the philosophy of art.
Brief description: John Gibson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisville.
Review Quotes:
"This is an excellent collection of essays assembled to address an important and challenging question: How can we be emotionally moved by, or learn from, fictional narratives--stories composed of persons, things, and events that we know don't exist? The writers address this question from a variety of perspectives and consider a wide range of examples from literature, drama, and film. The result is a lively, informed, thought-provoking discussion of the contentious borderland between art and actuality. The editors have made excellent choices, and the contributors have written clear-headed, incisive essays. This is a first-rate collection that everyone interested in literary aesthetics, the psychology of narrative, or the theory of fiction will need to have. But, more than that, it's a book that anyone curious about the bearing of fictional narratives on the way we think and feel about things in real life will want to read."
--Ronald Moore, University of Washington