Routledge Handbook of Fiction and Belief

<p><em>The Routledge Handbook of Fiction and Belief </em>offers a fresh reevaluation of the relationship between fiction and belief, surveying key debates and perspectives from a range of disciplines including narrative and cultural studies, science, religion, and politics. This volume draws on global, cutting edge research and theory to investigate the historically variable understandings of fictionality, and allows readers to grasp the role of fictions in our understanding of the world.</p><p>This interdisciplinary approach provides a thorough introduction to the fundamental themes of:</p><ul> <li>Theoretical and Philosophical Perspectives on Fiction</li> <li>Fiction, Fact, and Science</li> <li>Social Effects and Uses of Fiction</li> <li>Fiction and Politics</li> <li>Fiction and Religion</li> </ul><p>Questioning how fictions in fact shape, mediate or distort our beliefs about the real world, essays in this volume outline the state of theoretical debates from the perspectives of literary theory, philosophy, sociology, religious studies, history, and the cognitive sciences. It aims to take stock of the real or supposed effects that fiction has on the world, and to offer a wide-reaching reflection on the implications of belief in fictions in the so-called “post-truth” era.</p> <p>Introduction </p><p>Alison James, Akihiro Kubo, and Françoise Lavocat</p><p>Part I: Believing in Fiction: Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives </p><p>1 Belief, Imagination, and the Nature of Fiction </p><p>Stacie Friend</p><p>2 The “Willing Suspension of Disbelief”: The Long History of a Short Phrase </p><p>Nicholas D. Paige</p><p>3 The Fictionality of Games and the Ludic Nature of Fiction: Make-Believe, Immersion, Play </p><p>Marie-Laure Ryan</p><p>4 Fictional Emotions and Belief </p><p>Eva-Maria Konrad</p><p>5 Fictional Characters and Belief </p><p><em>Thomas Pavel</em></p><p>6 Fictionality, the Zone of Generic Fiction, and the Allure of Unreliable Narration </p><p>James Phelan</p><p>7 Belief Is a Mess. That Makes It Good for Fiction. (A Perspective from Cognitive Literary Theory) </p><p>Lisa Zunshine</p><p>8 Fiction and Historiography </p><p>Annick Louis</p><p>9 Fiction and Scientific Knowledge </p><p>Adam Toon</p><p>10 Learning from Fiction </p><p>Gregory Currie, Heather Ferguson, Jacopo Frascaroli, Stacie Friend, Kayleigh Green, and Lena Wimmer</p><p>Part II: From Fiction to Belief: Social and Political Effects </p><p>11 Do Fictions Impact People’s Beliefs? A Critical View</p><p>Edgar Dubourg and Nicolas Baumard</p><p>12 The Impact of Fiction on Beliefs about Gender </p><p>Vera Nünning</p><p>13 Implicit Bias, Fiction, and Belief </p><p>Kris Goffin and Agnes Moors</p><p>14 Children’s Ideas about Stories and about Reality </p><p>Ayse Payir and Paul L. Harris</p><p>15 From Suspension of Disbelief to Production of Belief: The Case of Alternate Reality Games</p><p>Patrick Jagoda</p><p>16 Interactive Environments and Fictional Engagement </p><p>Olivier Caïra</p><p>17 Fake News and Fictional News </p><p><em>Jessica Pepp, Rachel Sterken, and Eliot Michaelson</em></p><p>18 Trust, Credulity, and Speech </p><p>Philippe Roussin</p><p>19 Literature on Credit: Fiction and the Fiduciary Paradigm </p><p>Emmanuel Bouju and Loïse Lelevé</p><p>20 Fifth-Generation Fictionality? Fiction, Politics, War </p><p>Henrik Zetterberg-Nielsen</p><p>21 Uses of Fantasy Fiction in Contemporary Political Mobilization </p><p>Anne Besson</p><p>22 Fiction, Belief, and Postcolonial Criticism </p><p>Alok Yadav</p><p>23 Can Fictions Predict the Future? </p><p>Anne Duprat</p><p>24 Dystopian Fictions and Contemporary Fears </p><p>Jean-Paul Engélibert</p><p>25 Fiction, Belief, and Climate Change: Paratexts, Skeptics, and Objects of Care </p><p>Erin James</p><p>Part III: Fiction and Religious Belief 337</p><p>26 Greek Mythology: Discourse, Belief, and Ritual Action </p><p>Claude Calame</p><p>27 Fiction and Belief: Approaching Medieval Latin Christendom</p><p>Julie Orlemanski</p><p>28 Literary Fictions, “Fables,” and Unbelief in the West</p><p>Nicolas Correard</p><p>29 Saints, Between Faith, Belief, and Fiction</p><p>Barbara Selmeci Castioni</p><p>30 The Role of Fiction in Buddhist Hagiography: The Case of Shinran</p><p><em>Markus Rüsch</em></p><p>31 Fiction and Belief in Ancient and Early Medieval India</p><p>Isabelle Ratié</p><p>32 Fiction, Religion, and Premodern Arab-Islamic Literature (Eighth–Eighteenth Centuries)</p><p>Aboubakr Chraïbi</p><p>33 Fiction against Belief and Belief in Fiction in Modern and Contemporary Arabic Literature</p><p>Ève de Dampierre-Noiray</p><p>34 On Jewish Fiction and Belief: Duplicity, Parables, Confession</p><p>Sarah Hammerschlag</p><p>35 Religious Uses of Fantasy Fiction</p><p>Markus Altena Davidsen</p><p>36 Fake Cults, Hyper-Real Religions, Virtual Beliefs at the Crossroads of Fiction, the Sacred, and Technology</p><p>Lionel Obadia</p>