Fictional, Metafictional, Parafictional

International audienceFictional uses of fictional proper names are the uses one finds in the fiction in which the names in question are introduced. Such uses are not genuinely referential : they rest on pretence. Metafictional uses of proper names ('Sherlock Holmes was created by Doyle in 1887') are genuinely referential : they refer to a cultural artefact. In the paper I discuss a third type of use of fictional names : parafictional uses, illustrated by 'In the story, Holmes is a clever detective'. I try to steer a middle course between two approaches, one that assimilates them to metafictional uses, and another one that assimilates them to fictional uses