A twentieth-century poetics, this book brilliantly investigates the question of fiction "versus "nonfiction and the structure of ideas in literary criticism.Roberts finds a parallel and overlapping concept-structure behind the word poetry, and suggests that the idea of literature critics have today is a combination of such patterns of meaning. Hence, he finds that the ambiguous terminology of criticism, though often a burden to it is also of great service.A striking new kind of criticism, both in its theory and its format, "When Is Something Fiction? "will prove valuable to literary critics,...