HUMSS - Stefan Tilg

What can antiquity do for our views of fiction?

This presentation introduces selected aspects of my ongoing work on concepts and practices of fictional narrative in Classical Antiquity. I focus in particular on the link between authorship and fiction, and on the question of how different configurations of this link bear on our approach to and appreciation of fiction. After a brief definition of ‘fiction’ in contrast with related concepts such as the ‘lie’, I attempt to show that ancient fiction was, in a way, less fictional than modern one, precisely because it was more closely tied to an idea of the author (and not separated by the author through abstract instances such as the ‘narrator’ or the ‘speaker’). Finally, I argue that this historical observation can help clarify our own assumptions about fiction and its larger relevance. Is fiction ultimately not a resource for serious intellectual debate and argument, and does this use of fiction not work better if we can hold someone (the author) accountable for what is said?