Contracts of Fiction
Subtitle: Cognition, Culture and Community
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780190232146
Subjects: Fiction, history and criticism
Description: This title considers the advantages of describing fictions as governed by a set of social contracts. It combines current cognitive research with attention to the historical context of works of imagination to argue against the claim that fictions corrupt clear thinking and provide, at best, inert pleasures. The chapters explore the different ways creative work in media from statues to stage plays helps to maintain cultural homeostasis. Like the social contracts of law, language, kinship, and money, the social contracts of fiction are constructed and continually revised within communities.