The Interpretation of Fictional Characters in Literary Texts: History of Literary Criticism, Philosophy and Formal Ontologies
Special issue of «Humanities», guest edited by M. Paolini Paoletti, E.M. Sanfilippo, G. Tomazzoli (reprint available here)
Our special issue is finally published in its entirety! It features 18 international articles on several issues pertaining to fictional characters, spanning from the history of literary criticism to philosophy and formal ontologies. Some of the contributions were presented at MITE’s seminars or workshops, while others are articles that we selected after our public call for papers. The whole special issue results from a double-blind peer review and is available in open-access. Summary, with relevant link, can be read below.
– Francesca Medaglia (Sapienza Università di Roma): Alterations of the Fictional Line: Possible Encounters Between Authors and Complex Characters (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14030049)
This essay aims to examine the transformation of the traditional boundary between actantial roles inside fiction in literature and transmediality, to understand how this shift enables potential encounters between complex characters. This study focuses on contemporary complexity novels, where characters attempt to break free from their author-creators, as they offer a particularly compeling dynamic for investigation. It will examine this type of complex narration while also exploring the fluidity of contemporary storytelling in literature and transmediality, which introduces innovative narrative structures. Novels that reflect on the relationship between authorship and characters provide valuable insights from both a theoretical-literary and transmedia perspective, which deserve to be examined in light of the changes in the structure of contemporary narratives.
– Jansan Favazzo (Università di Macerata): Identifying Nothing: Anti-Realist Strategies for the Identity of Fictional Characters (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14030062)
According to fictional anti-realism, fictional characters should be excluded from the ontological inventory. Even though ficta are not assumed to be genuine entities, some issues concerning their identity seem to be genuine ones. Anti-realist philosophers may adopt three different strategies in order to deal with them: the Negation Strategy (i.e., such problems are not genuine ones), the Translation Strategy (i.e., such problems should be translated in terms of ficta-surrogates, genuine entities that replace ficta), and the Simulation Strategy (i.e., such problems should be handled within the pretense that ficta are genuine entities). In this paper, I shall argue in favor of the Translation Strategy as it shows some analytical advantages over its rivals, especially in treating the interplay between identity issues about ficta and ordinary narrative/interpretive practices.
– Giorgia Gallucci (Sapienza Università di Roma): Towards an Ontology of the Theatrical Character: Insights from Niccolò Machiavelli’s Comedies (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14040071)
This contribution aims to explore the composite nature of the theatrical character, with a focus on the comedy genre. The objective is to outline a theoretical framework for the development of a formal ontology that encompasses the editorial, performative, and receptive dimensions involved in the creation of dramatic characters. This article incorporates three perspectives: those of the author, the actor, and the spectator/reader. Drawing on the research of Manfred Pfister and Anne Ubersfeld, this contribution highlights how the study of theatrical characters requires specific methodologic attention, especially when compared with those of the narrative character, given the medial duality of the dramatic context. Since the theatrical character is the product of complex interplay between intentions and perceptions, the role of both the audience and the reader merit particular attention. The comedy genre lends itself to a categorical approach due to the historic configuration of stock types in classical comedy and masks in commedia dell’arte. Theoretical reflections will be supported by an analysis of Machiavelli’s comedies as a case study. The Machiavellian example most effectively illustrates the critical stratification underlying the perception of a character and the classes and properties that are essential to formalize its digital ontology.
– Alberto Voltolini (Università di Torino): What Makes a Version of a Work a Version of That Work? (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14040082)
In this paper, I want to defend the following claim. There is a good chance of keeping the Meinongian account of the individuation of fictional works and applying it to the individuation of versions of such a work, provided one properly takes into account some factors characterizing the make-believe games underlying the production of such versions, namely factors characterizing having to do with the remaking of such games, in order to explain why such versions are versions of that work, not mere individual works just as any other.
– Maria Ruggero (Università degli Studi Bari Aldo Moro): The Myth of Melusina from the Middle Ages to the Romantic Period: Different Perspectives on Femininity (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14040087)
My essay aims at considering the mythological figure of Melusina and her literary development, starting from the Middle Ages up to the Romantic period. The main purpose is to determine how this fictional entity, originally regarded as the symbol of nature and its fecundity, has changed over the time in relation to the historical and cultural complex and how this has reverberated in terms of interpretation of the identity of the literary character. I will consider the medieval versions of Jean D’Arras (1392), with some consequent references to Coudrette (1401–1405) and von Ringoltingen (1456), and the German romantic fairytale rewriting of Ludwig Tieck (1800). If the thematic nucleus remains the same, the configuration of the female character changes by reflecting the new Romantic poetics in terms of interest towards femininity, subjectivity and the study of the morphology of the Earth. In particular, Melusina is no longer seen as a mere and passive object, but as a subject who for the first time, hiding in an emblematic cave, reveals to the reader her own interiority and her own truth, totally assimilating herself to the external environment. The conclusion will show how the cultural subtext modifies the interpretation of this atavistic character.
– Francesco Orilia (Università di Macerata): Fictional Characters as Story-Free Denoting Concepts (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14060112)
Some realist views about fiction are non-objectual in that they see fictional characters not as objects but rather as properties or the like; notably, kinds, roles, or denoting concepts. The view centered on denoting concepts proposed in Orilia’s “A Theory of Fictional Entities Based on Denoting Concepts” (2012) is presented in this paper with further motivations and details and in relation to issues not previously dealt with from its perspective. This view differs from other proposals of this sort, such as those by Cocchiarella and Landini, for its flexibility in allowing for story-free fictional characters: they can migrate from one story to another. This migration is granted in two ways, one that relies on the preservation of salient common features and another grounded on an appropriate causal connection between stories, typically involving authorial intentions. A more detailed account of this connection and of its interplay with the preservation of salient features is elaborated. Moreover, the phenomenon of fictionally non-existent characters (as in fiction within fiction) is addressed. Finally, the presence in fiction of historical, plural, indeterminate, and identity-inconsistent characters is examined and analyzed in terms of denoting concepts.
– Arianna De Gasperis (Sapienza Università di Roma): Beatrice, Laura, and the Others: The Fin de Siècle Debate on Female Inspirers and the Popularising Turn of Giovanni Federzoni and Eugenia Codronchi (Sfinge) (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14060114)
Between the late-nineteenth and the early-twentieth centuries, Beatrice and Laura, as literary characters and beloved women of Dante and Petrarch, were at the centre of a vigorous scholarly debate, which gained traction in Romagna’s literary circles. Offering a comparative analysis of two key case studies—La vita di Beatrice Portinari (1904) by Giovanni Federzoni, and Laura’s biographical profile from Femminismo storico (1901) by Sfinge (Eugenia Codronchi Argeli)—this article reconstructs the popularising turn of this debate and its effect on medieval female characters’ reception as poetic inspirers. While Federzoni is motivated by didactic aims, seeking to facilitate readers’ access to the Commedia by deconstructing Beatrice’s abstraction, Sfinge elevates Laura as a model for contemporary women. Through an accessible structure and a hybrid methodology blending historical inquiry with literary imagination, both authors challenge allegorical readings and reclaim Beatrice and Laura as historically grounded figures.
– Marco Tirrito (Scuola Superiore di Catania, Università degli Studi di Catania): The Myth of Mosca: Instances of Antirealism in Eugenio Montale’s «Xenia» (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14060126)
The objective of this essay is to demonstrate the fictional nature of the character Mosca in Xenia I and Xenia II, the first two sections of Eugenio Montale’s collection Satura (1971), and to illustrate the strategies through which the author makes this possible. Although Mosca is inspired by the historical figure of Drusilla Tanzi, the poet employs a series of macrotextual, thematic, linguistic, and rhetorical devices to elevate the female figure to that of a poetic character. The study briefly addresses these various devices and seeks to refute the hypothesis of a diary-like memorial structure in Xenia, advocating instead for a “narrative–novelistic” structure, which leverages the typical mechanisms of narrative fiction. The contribution demonstrates how the combination of these strategies significantly influences the character of Mosca, ultimately leading to her absorption within the fictional world of narrative poetry.
– Heloísa Abreu de Lima (Sapienza Università di Roma): Interpreting Beatrice: The Critical Reception of the Character in the Last Twenty-Five Years (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14060131)
A central figure in Dante’s oeuvre, Beatrice, has been the subject of diverse interpretations and enduring critical debate across centuries. This study presents a comprehensive bibliographic review of Beatrice’s reception over the last twenty-five years, mapping the principal interpretive trends and methodological approaches that have shaped contemporary scholarship. The analysis organizes these contributions into five key thematic areas: 1. investigations into Beatrice’s historical and allegorical significance; 2. readings informed by a biblical perspective; 3. analyses exploring the relationship between Beatrice and Dante’s conception of love; 4. examinations of her literary meaning, often through metatextual and intertextual perspectives; and 5. gender-based inquiries that situate Beatrice within broader discourses on femininity and medieval representation. Additionally, the paper considers alternative interpretations beyond these dominant categories. Finally, the study identifies points of convergence and divergence between critical approaches to Beatrice and those applied to another emblematic female figure, Fiammetta, offering a comparative perspective on their scholarly reception.
– Giuseppina Balossi (independent researcher): Who Is Mrs. McNab? A Cognitive Stylistic Approach to This Narrative Agent and Narrative Device in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14060132)
In this article, I investigate the ontological status of the minor working-class character Mrs. McNab, the cleaner in “Time Passes”, the middle section of Virginia Woolf’s tripartite novel To the Lighthouse. Woolf regarded this section as the connecting block between the two outer blocks, “The Window” and “The Lighthouse”, in which she aimed to depict an empty house, devoid of human presence, and to highlight the passage of time. This section has often been analysed by literary-stylistic criticism as if written from a non-anthropocentric worldview. However, the presence of a lower-class cleaner and the absence of the upper middle-class characters who predominate in the other two blocks has also raised much debate in the literary arena. Literary critics agree that this character is given a narrative voice, but how this voice functions, and whether this character is granted narrative agency in terms of the class issues and social relations in the period of transition between Victorian England and the early twentieth-century, is an issue which still remains open. Drawing upon cognitive stylistics, I suggest reading this character both as a category-based and person-based character, and as a narrative device. First, I carry out the analysis of the repetitive she-clusters and their semantic prosodies; then, through samples of the section “Time Passes”, I analyse how viewpoint blending between narrator/author and character concur to grant narrative agency to Mrs. McNab and to what extent such agency may be limited by our perception of her through the social schemata of a servant, or whether such a perception may undergo a process of schema refreshment. Last, I suggest that this character may also be viewed as a narrative agent by means of which the reader can activate mental processes of TIME and SPACE blending between the three different blocks of the novel. This blending process allows for the completion of the narrative design of the novel: the journey to the lighthouse.
– James Phelan (Ohio State University): Narration as Characterization in First-Person Realist Fiction: Complicating a Universally Acknowledged Truth (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14070151)
I argue that the universally accepted assumption that in realist fiction a character narrator’s narration contributes to their characterization needs to be complicated. Working with a conception of narrative as rhetoric that highlights readerly interest in the author’s handling of the mimetic, thematic, and synthetic components of narrative, I suggest that the question about narration as characterization is one about the relation between the mimetic (character as possible person) and synthetic (character as invented construct) components. In addition, understanding the mimetic-synthetic relation requires attention to issues at the macro and micro levels of such narratives. At the macro level, I note the importance of (1) the tacit knowledge, shared by both authors and audiences, of the fictionality of character narration, which means authors write and readers read with an interest in its payoffs; and of (2) the recognition that character narration functions simultaneously along two tracks of communication: that between the character narrator and their narratee, and that between the author and their audience. These macro level matters then provide a frame within which authors and readers understand what happens at the micro level. At that level, I identify seven features of a character’s telling that have the potential to be used for characterization—voice, occasion, un/reliability, authority, self-consciousness, narrative control, and aesthetics. I also note that these features have their counterparts in the author’s telling. Finally, I propose that characterization via narration results from the interaction between the salient features of the character’s telling and their counterparts in the author’s telling. I develop these points through the analysis of four diverse case studies: Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” Nadine Gordimer’s “Homage,” and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.
– Lorenzo Carlucci (Sapienza Università di Roma) & Laura Marino (Liceo Scientifico Statale Aristotele): Who’s the Dude? A Historical Profile of the Critical Reception of Johannes De Hauvilla’s Architrenius (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14080156)
Medieval and modern readers of Johannes de Hauvilla’s late XII-century Latin poem Architrenius have proposed an array of discordant interpretations of the eponymous protagonist. This paper offers a historical profile of the critical reception of this peculiar fictional character, tracing responses from the Middle Ages to the present day. Given the poem’s limited dissemination and the modest critical attention it has received in modern times, it is possible to provide a nearly comprehensive overview of the reception history of the Architrenius. We analyze and classify the terminology and the argumentative strategies used by critics in constructing their portrait of the hero of Johannes’ poem and observe how these choices interact with the overall critical assessment of the Architrenius. Our analysis identifies two principal families of readers—both philologically and thematically—suggesting a dual trajectory in the reception of the poem throughout the centuries.
– Giuseppe Arena (independent researcher): Avant-Texts, Characters and Factoids: Interpreting the Genesis of La luna e i falò Through an Ontology (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14080162)
This study introduces the Real-To-Fictional Ontology (RTFO), a structured framework designed to analyze the dynamic relationship between reality and fiction in literary works, with a focus on preparatory materials and their influence on narrative construction. While traditional Italian philology and genetic criticism have distinct theoretical and editorial approaches to avant-text, this ontology addresses their limitations by integrating fine-grained textual analysis with contextual biographical avant-text to enhance character interpretation. Modeled in OWL2, RTFO harmonizes established frameworks such as LRMoo and CIDOC-CRM, enabling systematic representation of narrative elements. The ontology is applied to the case study of Cesare Pavese’s La luna e i falò, with a particular focus on the biographical avant-text of Pinolo Scaglione, the real-life friend who inspired key aspects of the novel. The fragmented and unstable nature of avant-text is addressed through a factoid-based model, which captures character-related traits, states and events as interconnected entities. SWRL rules are employed to infer implicit connections, such as direct influences between real-life contexts and fictional constructs. Application of the ontology to case studies demonstrates its effectiveness in tracing the evolution of characters from preparatory drafts to final texts, revealing how biographical and contextual factors shape narrative choices.
– Giacomo Evangelisti (Sapienza Università di Roma): Radegund of Poitiers in Modern Scholarship: Recurrent Themes and Portrayals (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14080165)
Radegund of Poitiers (520–587) was a princess of the Thuringian kingdom, wife to the Merovingian king Clothar I, and ultimately domina of the abbey of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers. The literary persona of Saint Radegund, as constructed by the poet-hagiographer Venantius Fortunatus and, a few years later, by the nun Baudonivia, underpins the historical figure. The saint exerted a significant cultural influence across Frankish territories, and over the ages her image has been continuously received, reinterpreted, and expanded. The purpose of this study is to provide a survey of the critical reception of Radegund’s character, in order to explore how modern scholarship has interpreted and reimagined her persona over time.
– Carmelo Tramontana (Università di Catania): The Prince’s Two Bodies: The Machiavellian Hero as a Literary Character Between History and Invention (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14090177)
This article discusses how in De principatibus Machiavelli defines the status of the treatise main character (the Prince) through the intersection of three levels: (a) history (as a character born from the symbolic fusion of traits and characteristics of historical personalities who actually existed); (b) politics (as a character who is the sign of an abstract political function); and (c) literary invention (as a fictional character constructed according to the rhetorical and logical strategies of literary invention). This case study shows how rhetoric, historiography, oratory, and political analysis are mixed together in a coherent organism, thanks to the creation of a character (the Prince) who constantly oscillates between historical–political reality and literary fiction. The analysis, both theoretical and historical, of the status of the protagonist of De principatibus is accompanied by the study of the critical readings of Francesco De Sanctis, Antonio Gramsci, and Luigi Russo, whose reception is strongly conditioned by the ambiguous nature of the character of the Prince, both in terms of critical categories and argumentative strategies.
– Enrica Bruno, Lorenzo Sabatino, & Francesca Tomasi (Università di Bologna): FiCT-O: Modelling Fictional Characters in Detective Fiction from the 19th to the 20th Century (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14090180)
This paper proposes a formal descriptive model for understanding the evolution of characters in detective fiction from the 19th to the 20th century, using methodologies and technologies from the Semantic Web. The integration of Digital Humanities within the theory of comparative literature opens new paths of study that allow for a digital approach to the understanding of intertextuality through close reading techniques and ontological modelling. In this research area, the variety of possible textual relationships, the levels of analysis required to classify these connections, and the inherently referential nature of certain literary genres demand a structured taxonomy. This taxonomy should account for stylistic elements, narrative structures, and cultural recursiveness that are unique to literary texts. The detective figure, central to modern literature, provides an ideal lens for examining narrative intertextuality across the 19th and 20th centuries. The analysis concentrates on character traits and narrative functions, addressing various methods of rewriting within the evolving cultural and creative context of authorship. Through a comparative examination of a representative sample of detective fiction from the period under scrutiny, the research identifies mechanisms of (meta)narrative recurrence, transformation, and reworking within the canon. The outcome is a formal model for describing narrative structures and techniques, with a specific focus on character development, aimed at uncovering patterns of continuity and variation in diegetic content over time and across different works, adaptable to analogous cases of traditional reworking and narrative fluidity.
– Federico Pianzola (University of Groningen), Luotong Cheng (University of Groningen-University of Twente), Franziska Pannach (University of Groningen), Xiaoyan Yang (University of Groningen), & Luca Scotti (Università di Bologna): The GOLEM Ontology for Narrative and Fiction (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14100193)
This paper introduces the GOLEM ontology, a novel framework designed to provide a structured and computationally tractable representation of narrative and fictional elements. Addressing limitations in existing ontologies regarding the integration of fictional entities and diverse narrative theories, our model extends CIDOC CRM and LRMoo and leverages DOLCE’s cognitive foundations to provide a flexible and interoperable framework. The ontology captures complexities of narrative structure, character dynamics, and fictional worlds while supporting provenance tracking and pluralistic interpretations. The modular structure facilitates alignment with various literary and narrative theories and integration of external resources. Future work will focus on expanding domain-specific extensions, validating the model through larger-scale case studies, and developing a reader response module to systematically model the reception of narratives. By fostering interoperability between literary theory, fan cultures, and computational analysis, this ontology lays a foundation for interoperable comparative research on narrative and fiction.
– Emilio M. Sanfilippo (CNR ISTC-Université de Tours), Claudio Masolo (CNR ISTC), & Gaia Tomazzoli (Sapienza Università di Roma): Interpreting Literary Characters Through Diagnostic Properties (doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/h14110213)
This paper investigates an approach to studying analytic relations (identity, similarity, borrowing, etc.) between literary characters using properties and, in particular, properties that are interpretively considered as diagnostic. In our proposal, properties serve as interpretative tools rather than strict ontological features. Unlike most ontological theories of literary characters developed in analytic philosophy, our study focuses on how real-world interpreters construct textual meaning while remaining agnostic about the ontological status of literary entities (ficta, in a more general sense). By integrating perspectives from literary criticism, philosophy, and formal methods, we explore how scholars infer relations between characters through textual evidence, common knowledge, and interpretive frameworks. This research aims at refining methodological approaches to character analysis and at contributing to broader discussions on literary interpretation and fictionality.