the paradox of dixtion

 we may not only be enthralled by elements of the plot but also affected by what befalls particular characters. Thus, we may find ourselves feeling pity for Anna Karenina as we near the end of Tolstoy’s novel because we are aware of Anna’s suffering. But the claim that we pity Anna Karenina is deeply puzzling: we know there is no Anna Karenina, and that it is only true in Tolstoy’s novel that Anna Karenina is suffering, so how can there be genuine pity for Anna? This is the so-called paradox of fiction

tended sense was “a literary nonreferential narrative” (1999: 17), where being “nonreferential” means that the work need not, and does not exclusively, refer to the real world outside the text, and that any references when it does “are not bound to accuracy” (1999: 15).