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Literary Self-Reference: Five Types of Liar's Paradox
- Philosophy and Literature
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 44, Number 2, October 2020
- pp. 476-485
- 10.1353/phl.2020.0035
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
A character in a novel pulls a book from a shelf and starts to read about himself in a novel. Puzzling, but what does it really mean? Does it force us to fundamentally reconsider the nature of fiction? Does it turn the novel into a kind of liar's paradox? And what exactly is a liar's paradox, anyway? Does the liar's paradox, despite its name, have anything to do with lying? What, if anything, does the liar's paradox have to tell us about reality, beliefs, and fictional discourse?