Introducing Pragmatics of Fiction: Approaches, trends and developments

In this introduction to the handbook on the Pragmatics of Fiction we introduce the aims of the collection and position it within the field of pragmatics. Considering fiction as texts that deserve to be studied in their own right, we argue that a pragmatic perspective opens interesting avenues of investigating both the techniques of fiction and how they pattern as well as the unique communication situation into which readers/viewers enter when engaging with fictional texts. We review the changing attitudes towards fictional data in the linguists’ community and then outline the themes of the collection.