Works of fiction are alleged to differ from works of nonfiction in instructing their audience to imagine their content. Indeed, works of fiction have been defined in terms of this feature: they are works that mandate us to imagine their content. This paper examines this definition of works of fiction, focusing on the nature of the activity that ensues in response to reading or watching fiction. Investigating how imaginings function in other contexts, I show, first, that they presuppose a cognitive infrastructure encompassing at least one additional kind of mental state, whose role is to determine, to some degree, truth in an imaginary world. I then discuss the implications for the definition of fiction, showing that the definition should be refined to accommodate the structure that imagining presupposes: a work counts as fiction just in case it mandates us, not only to imagine, but to engage in a more complex mental activity, an activity that in addition to imagining, involves positing a backdrop for our imaginings.

中文翻译：

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想像中的小说：拆开基础架构

据称，小说作品与非小说作品在指示听众想象其内容方面有所不同。确实，小说作品是根据此功能定义的：它们是使我们能够想象其内容的作品。本文研究了小说作品的定义，重点关注了因阅读或观看小说而发生的活动的性质。首先，我要研究想象力如何在其他情况下发挥作用，它们以一个认知基础为前提，该基础结构至少包含另一种精神状态，其作用是在某种程度上确定想象世界中的真理。然后，我讨论了小说定义的含义，表明应该完善定义以适应想象的前提：