{"product_id":"pretending-and-meaning","title":"Pretending and Meaning","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince Plato, Western critics of literature have asked how it is possible for fiction writers to mean something serious. The outrage over Salman Rushdie's \u003ci\u003eThe Satanic Verses\u003c\/i\u003e, published in 1988, highlighted our continued uneasiness over distinctions between fact and fiction, novel and history, truth and falsehood. The blasphemy charged against Rushdie raises important questions: Did Rushdie mean \u003ci\u003eThe Satanic Verses\u003c\/i\u003e, or didn't he? When he publicly recanted, what did he mean? What do we even mean by mean?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the starting point for Richard Henry's fascinating investigation of the pragmatic foundations of fictional discourse. Drawing from Paul Grice's interrogation of meaning and implicature, Henry offers a systematic correlation between what it is to pretend and what it is to mean, how the two concepts inform each other, and how it is possible to mean seriously and sincerely by purportedly pretended acts. \u003ci\u003ePretending and Meaning: Toward a Pragmatic Theory of Fictional Discourse\u003c\/i\u003e draws upon Paul Grice's interrogation of meaning and implicature to offer a systematic correlation between what it is to pretend and what it is to mean, how the two concepts inform each other, and how it is possible to mean seriously and sincerely by purportedly pretended acts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing Plc","offers":[{"title":"Default Product","offer_id":54219416076632,"sku":"9780313298899","price":67.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/pretending-and-meaning","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}