![]() If it is impossible to imagine that the fictional work is narrated, then the work is not a narrative. Fictional narrators are always based on fictional truths, they are the result of a game of make-believe, and hence the only evidence for a fictional narrator is always merely fictional. If they are not used in this manner, they are nothing but black dots on paper, the oxidation of silver through light, or any other technical description of artefacts containing representations. The fictionality of narratives depends entirely on the fact that they are used as props in a game of make-believe. Once the narratological category of the fictional narrator is understood in terms of fictional truth, the methodological consequences can be fully grasped: without the generation of fictional truths in a game of make-believe, there are no fictional narratives – and no fictional narrators. Instead, a solution is suggested that emphasizes the active role of recipients in the generation of fictional truths, and in particular in the generation of implied fictional truths. Since the category of the fictional narrator has proved to be extremely useful in the history of narratology, such removal would be unfortunate, however. The only other option is to remove the category of fictional narrators altogether. suggested by proponents of the so-called optional narrator theory, such as Currie ), has to accept fictional narrators in all cases of fictional narratives. More specifically, the argument is made that any theory of fictional narrative that accepts fictional narrators in some cases (as e. g. Therefore, the paper argues that every fictional narrative makes it (at least indirectly) fictionally true that it is narrated. Indirect, implied fictional truths can also be part of the generation of the fictional truth of a fictional narrator. To exemplify: not every novel begins with words like ✼all me Ishmael«, i. e., stating direct fictional truths about its narrator. Here, the distinction between direct and indirect fictional truths is crucial since not every fictional narrative – not even every literary fictional narrative – makes it directly fictionally true that it is narrated. Importantly, ›presence‹ in terms of being part of a work of fiction needs to be understood as exactly that: fictional presence, meaning that the question of what counts as a fictional truth is of great importance. Building on the distinction between direct and indirect fictional truths as developed by Kendall Walton in his seminal theory of fiction as make-believe (1990), this paper proposes the fictional presence of a narrator in all fictional narratives. ![]() ![]() Although the article shares roughly the same theoretical point of departure as Köppe and Stühring, that is, an analytical-philosophical theory of fiction as make-believe, it offers a diametrically different solution. In this vein, this paper applies a transmedial approach to the question of fictional narrators in different media based on the transmedial theory of fiction in terms of make-believe by Kendall Walton (1990). From this, it follows that any account on which the fictional narrator is built ideally would be a theory of fiction compatible with all types of fictional narrative media – not just narrative fiction like novels and short stories. Arguably, theorising about the fictional narrator necessitates theorising about fiction in general. For scholars like Genette (1988) and Cohn (1999), the category of the fictional narrator was at the centre of theoretical debates about the demarcation of fiction and non-fiction. Yet, the fictional narrator has been a decisive tool within literary narratology for many years, in particular during the heyday of classical literary narratology. Kania (2005), and pan-narrator theories have been dismissed, e. g. The central part of the attacks has been the ubiquity of fictional narrators, see e. g. Many of the contributions criticise how the term is used – both outside of narrative literature as well as within the field of fictional narrative literature. ![]() The role of the narrator in fiction has recently received renewed interest from scholars in philosophical aesthetics and narratology.
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