This project argues that deceptions are worth studying as creative acts.
The resulting discoveries are applied to discourses within contemporary narrative
illustration.
Almost all complex deceptions are texts composed of visual and verbal elements.
This research is interested in those deceptions that appear in print and particularly
those that involve the creation of a fictional author through a sustained text meant to be
considered real by a particular audience. The deceptions concerning this research are
not momentary; they exist as specially created artefacts and documents and are
sustained over a substantial period of time. These deceptions are not necessarily
created by artists or authors, they may be created by any person who utilises a particular
methodology: the appropriation and collage of visual and narrative fragments to create
the illusion of a seamless whole. The images in these deceptions respond to the
Internet and fragmentary, circular or real time narrative in a way that mainstream
illustration, as yet, does not.
The research methodology is empirical; evidence of the deceptions’ dissemination and
repetition is collected. These are the texts; the illustrated fictions analysed by the thesis.
The taxonomy organises them according to their aesthetic characteristics, avoiding
psychological speculation and focusing on their substance. The concept of ‘fake
literature’ within literary theory and the increasing use of strategies amongst artists that
question discredited notions of authenticity are also considered. Certain philosophical
theories about the nature of language are used to clarify the discussion.