The human race has made up stories for thousands of years and for various purposes – one of which is the preservation of history. The tradition of storytelling existed long before the advent of story writing.

The oldest written fictional piece that has been discovered as yet is an epic of Gilgamesh dating back to 2100 BC, written in Sumerian language on clay tablets. In the epic, Gilgamesh has been portrayed as a demigod, venturing on an adventure transcending mortality.

The word ‘fiction’ has roots in the Latin word fictio, first used in the 14th century. Fictio means ‘to form’ or ‘to mould’. Over time, many definitions for fiction have sprung up, mainly due to the differing politics of various cultures. According to a popular definition fiction means ‘fabricated events narrated in a sequence, revolving around imaginary people and organised into a plot’. However, it appears that fiction aims at something bigger than merely imagined stories, as it takes into its fold many a socio-political matter, various issues from life and problems humans face.

Generally, literature is classified into fiction and non-fiction. Latter is more about reality or facts, whereas the former is mostly based on what-if scenarios. However, the line distinguishing fiction from non-fiction has blurred with time. A new word has been coined for this purpose: faction, which is a blend of fact and fiction.

Fiction has the potential to manipulate one’s thoughts and psyche. According to psychologists, the mind works so intricately that an image (either in mind or reality) – once it has been registered by the mind – will definitely affect thoughts and perceptions of the reader. Therefore, it can mould one’s beliefs and instil emotions of courage, fear, happiness or sadness.

Through imaginative fiction, one is able to conceive a parallel world with alternate possibilities. Probably that is why people get addicted to fiction.

Fiction has many genres under its umbrella i.e. myths, fables, and folktales etc. In ancient times, stories like Homer’s epic Illiad and Odyssey were anticipated as true stories of heroism. But as society evolved, these myths and legends became part of new fiction. Gothic fiction, science fiction, fairy tales and myths are an amalgamation of man’s imaginary creatures. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll, a character named Gryphon is half eagle and half lion.

A research conducted on 18 groups of hunter-gatherers of Philippines by Daniel Smith, an anthropologist at the University College London, concluded that 80 percent of their stories were on morality and social dilemmas. Such stories were invented with the purpose of admonishing future monarchs and to enhance cooperation among societies. It seems that in every age fiction has been produced with politics as a primary threshold in its backdrop. The Greek drama Oedipus Rex, revolves around the story of an arrogant but just king.

Novels have always been underpinned by politics. Even, Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice is not completely apolitical, according to critics. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was based on the politics of dominance of white people at the expense of non-whites. Many contemporary writers, including Mohsin Hamid, Muhammad Hanif, Arundhati Roy, Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami to name but a few, have touched upon political matters.