Research Seminar: Prof Francois Recanati (Institute Jean Nicod)
| Dates: | 18 October 2017 |
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| Times: | 15:15 - 17:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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Title: Fictional, Metafictional, Parafictional
Abstract: Fictional uses are the uses of fictional proper names (e.g. ‘Sherlock Holmes’) one finds in the fiction in which the names in question are introduced. Such uses are not genuinely referential : they rest on pretence — the pretence that there is an individual the author is referring to. Metafictional uses of proper names (‘Sherlock Holmes was created by Doyle in 1887’) are genuinely referential : they refer to a cultural object, arguably a variety of abstract artefact. In the talk I will discuss a third type of use of fictional names : parafictional uses, illustrated by ‘In the story, Holmes is a clever detective who solves cases for a variety of clients, including Scotland Yard’. I will discuss two approaches to such uses, one that assimilates them to metafictional uses, and another one that assimilates them to fictional uses. I will try to steer a middle course between the two approaches, by exploiting the linguistic notion of a dot-object. In the last part of the talk I will reframe the issue in terms of mental files.
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Cordingley Lecture Theatre
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
