Abstract
John Searle analyzes the nature of fictional discourse within the theory of speech acts. He thinks that fictional discourse is made up of assertive illocutionary acts, which have no referential force. In this sense, they do not fulfill truth conditions, but require “horizontal conventions.” Therefore, an author of fictional discourse pretends to perform assertive illocutionary acts.
In this article, I criticize Searle’s view of fictional discourse from several perspectives; the first part focuses on his classification of illocutionary acts, the second part elucidates his view of the logic of fictional discourse, and the third part is a critique of Searle’s view.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Austin, J. L. 1962 (1997). How to do things with words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Beicken, Peter U. 1977. Kafka’s narrative Rhetoric. Journal of Modern Literature 6(3): 398–409.
Kafka, Franz. 1961 (1981). Metamorphosis and other stories. Trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. New York: Penguin Books.
Lukács, Georg. 1962 (1969). The meaning of contemporary realism. Trans. John and Necke Mander. London: Merlin Press.
Mikkonen, Jukka. 2009. The realistic fallacy, or: The conception of literary narrative fiction in analytic aesthetics. Studia Philosophica Estonica 2(1): 1–18.
Searle, John. 1979 (1999). Expression and meaning: Studies in the theory of speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Searle, John. 1996. The construction of social reality. London: Penguin.
Sokel, Walter H. 1983. From Marx to Myth: The structure of and function of self-alienation in Kafka’s metamorphosis. The Literary Review 26(4, Summer): 485–496.
van Oort, Richard. 1998. Three models of fiction: The logical, the phenomenological, and the anthropological (Searle, Ingarden, Gans). New Literary History 29(3, Summer): 439–465.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953 (1968). Philosophical investigations. 2nd edn. Ed. G.E.M. Anscombe and R. Rhees and Trans. G.E.M. Anscombe. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Turanli, A. (2012). A Critique of John Searle’s View of the Logic of Fictional Discourse. In: Tymieniecka, A. (eds) Art, Literature, and Passions of the Skies. Analecta Husserliana, vol 112. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4261-1_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4261-1_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4260-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4261-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)