What makes a work of literature fictional?
It isn’t a matter of true or false. It’s possible that every event in a work of fiction actually happened. The underlying themes may be totally accurate. And, even though fiction can employ very imaginative descriptions or improbable actions (though when the actions get too improbable the fiction isn’t quite so fun) but this fantasy doesn’t define the category of fiction.
It seems to me that the defining difference between fiction and non-fiction is the relation of the narrating persona...
to the real-life author. If the persona (name, speaking or writing style, experiences, personality) of the stories narrator and author are an identity then the work should be considered non-fiction. If, on the other hand, the author has created a narrator that is different from herself the work should be considered fiction.
Alexander McCall Smith, for instance, creates beautiful narrating persona. Most of his stories stick so closely to a character that the narration takes on the personality of that character. The series that begins with http://www.amazon.com/Ladies-Detective-Agency-5-Book-Boxed/dp/0307261581/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-9608239-6743254?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182937689&sr=1-3 for instance follows Precious Ramotswe and the narration, like Mma Ramotswe moves deliberately and wisely with attention to personal detail.
In contrast, the main character in McCall Smith’s http://www.amazon.com/Right-Attitude-Isabel-Dalhousie-Mysteries/dp/1400077117/ref=sr_1_6/002-9608239-6743254?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182937689&sr=1-6 is a philosopher, specifically an ethicist, and the narrative travels a tangential line between events and their ethical ramifications.
This idea of fictional persona in no way denies the many similarities between author and fictional narrator. McCall Smith, for instance, like Isabel Dalhousie works as an ethicist and lives in Scotland where the Dalhousie Mysteries take place. I’m certain there are many other similarities between them—that Isabel in some way shadows McCall Smith himself—but there are enough differences between them to identify these books as fiction.
My question is: do visual artists use persona when they paint? If they do, should this knowledge have any bearing on the way we look at their work?
Rev. 1.1 (2 July 2007)