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I løbet af den amerikanske valgkamp i 2016, som ender med at Donald Trump bliver den 45. præsident i USA, får begrebet fake news ny betydning som en særlig politisk retorik. Med dette temanummer ønsker vi at sætte begrebet i en større sammenhæng såvel historisk som teoretisk, og som titlen på temanummeret antyder, mener vi, at det er frugtbart at tænke på tværs af de tre begreber fiktionalitet, faktualitet og fake news. Fake news er ikke på nogen entydig måde en traditionel fiktionsgenre eller blot at betragte som en faktualitetsgenre. I stedet belyser begreberne hinanden.

UNNATURAL NARRATIVES, UNNATURAL NARRATOLOGY | In recent years, the study of unnatural narrative has developed into one of the most exciting new paradigms in narrative theory. Both younger and more established scholars have become increasingly interested in the analysis of unnatural texts, many of which have been consistently neglected or marginalized in existing narratological frameworks. By means of the collaboration of four scholars who have been developing unnatural narratology, this article seeks to summarize key principles, to consolidate some conclusions, to extend the work through carefully chosen examples, and, finally, to point toward the future.

Sex and Violence:Literary critics have paid very little attention to Bret Easton Ellis’s book Glamorama. In fact no-one I know of has even undertaken the seemingly simple task of finding out what actually happens in the course of the narrative. In this article I will do just that and analyse the book by considering such basic parts of the book as its title, the first and last page and the plot. I will pay special attention to the multilayered violence. Using the distinctions by Slavoj Žižek, to whom I will turn at the end of the article, I will argue that the violence in Glamorama takes place at a subjective, a symbolic and a systemic level at the same time.

Suicide MissionsThe article falls into two interconnected parts. In part one a diagnosis of the economization of universities and the theoretical developments in the humanities in Denmark is provided with an emphasis on literary theory. Positions and persons associated with literary theory have become so weak and diffuse that theory no longer poses a counter-logic or counter-language to other logics and languages such as political or economical ones, it is claimed. In the second part a predominantly formal analysis of the literary work »The Suicide Mission« (Selvmordsaktionen) is carried out with a wish to show that what the book tells us about democracy, Iraq, state of exception etc. can hardly be understood if one jumps to looking only at the world instead of also in the work.