Abstract
This paper engages recent studies about the escalating use of fictionalized narratives across socially mediated platforms that have produced a “misinformation crisis.” My particular focus is taking a granular look at the predicament of writing literary fiction in a political and economic landscape saturated by propaganda and alternative facts, lies and double speak alongside AI generated “synthetic media” and “shallowfakes”: mediated platforms, in short, that have become increasingly fictionalized themselves. At a moment when misinformation regularly exerts magnetism over public discourse, literary fiction finds its natural domain, the unreal world, colonized. If, as novelist Amitava Kumar recently reflected, fake news has become “the specter haunting the writing of fiction,” this talk will make an effort to closely examine select fictions by writers as wide ranging as Raymond Carver, Percival Everett, Kathy Acker and recent Pulitzer winner Hernan Diaz, in order to reclaim fiction’s role in the production of what narrative theorist Michel Riffatterre calls “fictional truth.” In this paper, my fundamental question is: how can fiction respond, if it can respond, to a public sphere saturated by fictionalized facts? My aim is to convincingly showcase how fiction offers a toolkit that presents opportunities to create and anchor trust—in effect offering readers a lever to better understand how to critically read narratives for markers of credibility.
Presenters
Christina MillettiAssociate Professor of English, Interim Director: Humanities Institute, English Department, University at Buffalo, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
New Media, Technology and the Arts
KEYWORDS
Misinformation Crisis, Fiction, Alternative Facts, Lies, Social Media Platforms, Trust
