Fictional Characters as Transworld Individuals

Abstract Speaking of fictional characters, the pretense theorist denies the existence of these entities, while the creationist maintains that they are abstract artefacts created by fiction writers. By interpreting fictional characters as trans-world individuals, we develop an alternative account in which fictional characters and real persons are treated uniformly. In particular, neither fictionalizing discourse nor internal discourse about fictional characters involves pretense, and neither external discourse nor non-existence claim about fictional characters concerns abstract artefacts. A fictional character is, after all, a person; to be fictional, he or she needs to be written about in a fictional work.