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    Literary utterances are not genuine speech acts but rathe... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Representing in literature is a speech act

    Literary utterances are not genuine speech acts but rather 'imitations' of speech acts, as Searle argues in 'The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse'.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Authors suspend normal communicative intent; they don't assert propositions to affect audiences' beliefs as genuine speakers do.
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    • 2.Literary speech lacks the binding social obligations of real promises, warnings, and declarations made outside fictional contexts.
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    • 3.Readers understand literary utterances operate under different rules—we don't fact-check novels or hold authors accountable as we do speakers.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Literary utterances still perform genuine illocutionary acts: novels warn, describe, and persuade with real communicative force and effect.
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    • 2.The distinction between 'genuine' and 'imitated' speech acts lacks clear criteria; both involve intentional communication with conventional meaning.
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    • 3.Searle's account struggles with cases like embedded speech in fiction (dialogue) and metafictional works that blur the imitation/genuine boundary.
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    Philosophy of Language1 linkedAesthetics1 linked

    Related

    Authors suspend normal communicative intent; they don't assert propositions to a...Literary speech lacks the binding social obligations of real promises, warnings,...Literary utterances still perform genuine illocutionary acts: novels warn, descr...Readers understand literary utterances operate under different rules—we don't fa...
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    Representing in literature is a speech actSearle's account struggles with cases like embedded speech in fiction (dialogue)...The distinction between 'genuine' and 'imitated' speech acts lacks clear criteri...

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