Toward a Theory of Fiction

FAIN: FB-12586-75

John D. Grouppe
St. Joseph's College (Rensselaer, IN 47978)

To undertake a study of a theory of fiction. Some contemporary theorists (Frank Kermode and Robert Scholes) have made steps toward a theory of fiction, but have provided no fully developed theory. Northrop Frye, John Barth and Rober Coover's theories will be studied. The question of the nature and function of fiction is of prime importance once one takes seriously the attempts of a Marx or a Freud or a Sartre or a Buber to discover the purely human contribution to reality and this contribution might help us to understand human reality and enable us to deal properly with our own creations.