Identifying Nothing: Anti-Realist Strategies for the Identity of Fictional Characters

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.