Frank Palmer is a freelance writer

'should be welcomed for its insistence upon the essential relationship between art and life; and for its stand against those current theories of criticism which seek to dehumanize literature'Edwin Webb, Use of English

• Part 1 Fictional persons and fictional worlds: fictional persons; fictional existence; possible worlds; fictional worlds. Part 2 Fiction versus fantasy, pretence and make-believe: games and language-games; make-believe as fantasy; imagination. Part 3 The moral attitudes: deeds and doers; moral attitudes as mere feelings; blame as accountancy or record-keeping; difficulties with this argument; facts and values; the human world. Part 4 Moral responses to fictional characters: Radford's argument; Weston's argument. Part 5 Readers and spectators: understanding, emotion and moral response; fictional narrator and implied reader; access to characters and the form of our attitudes; the myth of the disappearing author. Part 6 Life in art: truth in art; fictional life not continuous? - order and meaning in art. Part 7 Bad morality, bad art?: artistic and moral appraisal; agreement and acceptance; art and evil; love and the creative act; the artist nd moral responsibility; art and negativity. Part 8 Learning from literature: the problem; the cognitivist theory; telling and showing; moral understanding and an epistemology of value; morality, language and culture; ritual and celebration.

Frank Palmer is a freelance writer

'should be welcomed for its insistence upon the essential relationship between art and life; and for its stand against those current theories of criticism which seek to dehumanize literature'Edwin Webb, Use of English

• Part 1 Fictional persons and fictional worlds: fictional persons; fictional existence; possible worlds; fictional worlds. Part 2 Fiction versus fantasy, pretence and make-believe: games and language-games; make-believe as fantasy; imagination. Part 3 The moral attitudes: deeds and doers; moral attitudes as mere feelings; blame as accountancy or record-keeping; difficulties with this argument; facts and values; the human world. Part 4 Moral responses to fictional characters: Radford's argument; Weston's argument. Part 5 Readers and spectators: understanding, emotion and moral response; fictional narrator and implied reader; access to characters and the form of our attitudes; the myth of the disappearing author. Part 6 Life in art: truth in art; fictional life not continuous? - order and meaning in art. Part 7 Bad morality, bad art?: artistic and moral appraisal; agreement and acceptance; art and evil; love and the creative act; the artist nd moral responsibility; art and negativity. Part 8 Learning from literature: the problem; the cognitivist theory; telling and showing; moral understanding and an epistemology of value; morality, language and culture; ritual and celebration.

Frank Palmer is a freelance writer

'should be welcomed for its insistence upon the essential relationship between art and life; and for its stand against those current theories of criticism which seek to dehumanize literature'Edwin Webb, Use of English

• Part 1 Fictional persons and fictional worlds: fictional persons; fictional existence; possible worlds; fictional worlds. Part 2 Fiction versus fantasy, pretence and make-believe: games and language-games; make-believe as fantasy; imagination. Part 3 The moral attitudes: deeds and doers; moral attitudes as mere feelings; blame as accountancy or record-keeping; difficulties with this argument; facts and values; the human world. Part 4 Moral responses to fictional characters: Radford's argument; Weston's argument. Part 5 Readers and spectators: understanding, emotion and moral response; fictional narrator and implied reader; access to characters and the form of our attitudes; the myth of the disappearing author. Part 6 Life in art: truth in art; fictional life not continuous? - order and meaning in art. Part 7 Bad morality, bad art?: artistic and moral appraisal; agreement and acceptance; art and evil; love and the creative act; the artist nd moral responsibility; art and negativity. Part 8 Learning from literature: the problem; the cognitivist theory; telling and showing; moral understanding and an epistemology of value; morality, language and culture; ritual and celebration.