This collection of articles analyzes important aspects of the complex relationships in the contemporary world between fact on the one hand and fiction and faction, history and counterfactual history on the other.
The borderline between the two realms has been increasingly complicated and blurred during recent decades. This does not make the distinction between what is real and what is fiction irrelevant but it now takes a lot more scholarly effort to make such a distinction or to figure out exactly to what extent and in what ways the border between the two has been blurred.
The media present facts in a manner that makes them look like fiction, and conversely fiction is presented as if it were facts. Games significantly influence the way in which reality is perceived. Historians analyze counterfactual scenarios. Within literature, fiction and faction have always been mixed but this blending has developed significantly in the context of postmodernism. Autobiography often blends the discourses of the factual and the fictional in a performative way.
All these aspects are included in this collection of articles from various fields of research and there is no doubt that this interdisciplinary approach contributes to achieving the new insights which are necessary for understanding and appreciating the new trends in literature, history, media and games.
