Fictionality as Rhetoric: A Distinctive Research Paradigm

The rhetorical account of fictionality has drawn considerable attention in narratological circles, but the extent to which it is fundamentally at odds with other approaches, despite their diversity, has not been recognised. This essay aims to elucidate the significant departure from all previous contributions to the theory of fiction, achieved by conceiving of fictionality as a resource integral to direct communication, not the quality marking fiction’s detachment from its framing communicative context. It contrasts the concept of fictionality as rhetoric with the main currents in theory of fiction and establishes a basis for scrutinising some open questions within rhetorical approaches, concerning the scope and precise definition of fictionality conceived in this way. It concludes by pointing towards three distinct areas of further research opened up by a rhetorical perspective, relating to the contextual variables of the fiction’s medium, its immediate discursive environment and its cultural and historical juncture.