Introduction

The authors describe current debates on the relationship between fiction and belief from a broad interdisciplinary and comparative perspective, offering insights from philosophy, narrative theory, literary studies, media studies, religious studies, history, cognitive sciences, and sociology. More recently, theories of fiction as a form of “pretense” or “make-believe” also imply the production of something which mimics, performs, or resembles belief. Belief itself has often been subject to suspicion, set on the side of opinion (doxa) as opposed to knowledge (episteme). The authors might add that beliefs—and by extension credulous attitudes—are also what they often ascribe to people in the past. Perennial fears about the influence of fiction on beliefs (and actions) rest on the assumption that certain people or groups of people (women, children, premodern or “non-modern” peoples) are especially susceptible to confusing reality and imagination. Finally, the chapter also provides an overview of this book.