Zoom link

To join the Zoom meeting online, please click https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/81528669761.

Abstract

Most of the philosophical debate about fictional entities has focused on literary fictions and objects (like fictional characters). But reading a story is different in many ways from watching a movie. Shifting our focus to performative fiction changes our perspective in, I think, interesting ways. I'll argue that among the things we see when we watch a fictional film are fictional events, which involve fictional characters (such as Charles Foster Kane giving a campaign speech -- see Citizen Kane). And I mean this literally: we see fictional events, and so fictional events exist, and so fictional characters (the participants of fictional events) exist. There will be lots of movie clips in this talk.