Is there truth in fiction? Lessons from readers’ responses to dementia fiction
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This paper addresses the question 'is there truth in fiction?', by synthesising a range of disciplinary approaches to the issue, as well as drawing on empirical research carried out with readers of fiction about dementia (hereafter, dementia fiction). We argue that fiction-perhaps because of its fictional status and apparatus-invites readers to consider its truth value, to explore the possibilities of human experience and interrogate issues relative to their subjective experience, community or society. The findings have significant implications for the Medical Humanities' use of fictional texts to explore lived medical conditions and experiences, as well as claims made about the potential for fiction to affect real-world understandings, awareness and empathy around the conditions depicted. We show that the techniques used in fictional language may be artifice, but they simulate a truth that corresponds with reality.
Source: Medical Humanities
Institutions: Queen's University Belfast, Universidad de Granada
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4405023934