Fiction and manipulation and post-truth

Abstract

The author attempts to develop an understanding of the concept of post-truth ‒ which relates to a situation or signifying a situation in which objective facts have less influence on shaping public opinion than emotions and personal beliefs. In the article, this concept is primarily presented in the light of the concept of fiction analysis, which is considered to be the main feature of literature (belles-lettres), but is also an element of other forms of expression, such as, for example, legal regulations – as legal fiction. Post-truth pretends to play the role of the historical truth of contemporary times, such as factual material in a academic work, so an important observation is the remark about the blurry cognitive boundaries between literary fiction based on historical data and academic history. The observed demand of recipients of fiction to identify its content with reality, for the emotional need to identify ideas with facts is significant. Fiction as a specific linguistic creation contains many elements that enable flexible use of its content for various purposes: pretending, imitation, action announcements that have no effect. That is why fiction – pretending to be reality – introduces the lie “that pretends to exist” in culture. The possibilities of using fiction, manipulation or even lies for specific practical purposes were discussed in ancient Greece, so post-truth does not use own specific tools. Therefore, the author sees the differences between post-truth and the manipulations of past times in the social and cultural conditions of the functioning of these concepts, concluding that in past times authorities have used lies to manipulate subordinates, while posttruth is a reaction of subordinates to the lies and manipulations of the authorities.