Literary Fiction according to Augustine’s Soliloquia

Abstract

In this paper, I focus on some passages from Augustine’s Soliloquia. I show that they contain the idea of literary fiction as a non-deceptive lie, in which voluntariness and necessity coexist. I pay particular attention to the case of mythical fiction, which on the one hand leads to Cicero’s theory of narration and on the other hand to Augustine’s conception of imagination.