Abstract

In Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics, the truth of fiction relates to the search for answers to questions about personal identity and the meaning of life in the world lacking substantial foundations. Ricoeur’s considerations are situated between realism and constructivism. The article dicusses the consequences of the hermeneutical relationship between imaginary worlds and reality for the redefinition of such concepts , as: “truth”, “understanding”, “ethics” and “personal identity”. I attempt to answer the following questions: What is the truth of literary fiction? What is the relationship between literary fiction and reality? What, in the literary fiction, is created and what is discovered? What does self-understanding, related to the imaginary worlds, consist in? What is the role of literary fiction in constituting personal identity? Why is reading an ethical act? What is the role of metaphorical mediation in the process of understanding?