Why narrativity, fictionality and factuality?

In recent transmedial narrative studies there is a growing interest in the relation between narrativity (the aspects of a text or a communicative situation that makes it narrative); fictionality (the specific modes of expression and cognitive procedures related to fiction) and factuality (the specific modes of expression and cognitive procedures related to factual texts and communication). Where former research has been oriented toward an exclusive understanding of the fact/fiction distinction as being opposites, present approaches considers fictionality an important phenomenon also in non-fictive texts. Furthermore, in contemporary literature, television and cinema, the border between fiction and non-fiction is being trespassed repeatedly, making existing conceptions and categories less useful than before.

There are therefore a series of open questions that needs to be answered. Among these are:

• What is the cognitive function  of fictionality in human interaction and development?
• What role does fictionality play in everyday communication  - when constructing examples; through anecdotes and urban legends; in didactic practices?
• What are the ethical and aesthetical consequences of the vast amount of fiction/nin-fiction crossovers we find in contemporary literature and media?
• To what extend can narratology (narrative theory and analysis) account for similarities and differences in storytelling across the fact/fiction divide.
• How shall we, in general, distinguish between fiction, fictionality and non-fiction? With reference to formal communicative and/or textual features, or solely by considering the status of the referent.