ABSTRACT
In the practice of postcolonial criticism, literary fictions are commonly scrutinized for the beliefs (values, assumptions, outlooks) they embody or communicate about the real world, despite their status as fictions. Such an approach assumes that fictions and the make-believe worlds they give us are inextricably imbricated with the real world. This essay explores some of the grounds of this view in terms of: (1) the implications of the language in which a literary fiction is written, (2) the relation between actual readers and the fictional text, and (3) fiction’s capacity to augment reality.
