Paper short abstract:

This article aims to examine the role and poetic power of fiction within romantic relationships among Taiwanese youth, with the intention of reflecting on the extent to which their way of “feeling to know” will serve as a source of knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

This article aims to explore the potential significance of fiction in the production of anthropological knowledge, with a focus on that the youth in Taiwan express they are “feeling connected to” romantic fiction. My interlocutors occasionally gravitate towards contemporary narratives featuring characters who, like themselves, are contemporaneous and share similar educational backgrounds, values, and ways of thinking. Instead of attributing this phenomenon solely to the concept of identification, I seek to investigate the manner in which my interlocutors are drawn to romantic fiction despite their largely materialist views on relationships. Drawing upon Alfred Gell’s (2011) discourse regarding the function of fiction in enabling modern individuals, through an exchange of affective signals, to transform an unspecified one into a historically specific person for romantic engagement, I propose that the poetic power of fiction on readers/viewers may be related to their metaphorical associations with the signs emanating from fiction. I would then reflect on the extent to which their way of “feeling to know” will serve as a source of knowledge.