Human Drama as Reality Operator: Revised Axiomatic Foundations of Narrative Realism

Abstract

This work proposes a revised axiomatic foundation for narrative realism by treating human drama as a reality‑activating operator acting on fictional settings. The paper demonstrates that readers’ perception of realism in fiction is determined not by the ontological plausibility of the setting but by the existential urgency of the characters within it. From this central axiom, the study derives formal theorems explaining the acceptance of fantastical worlds, the anchoring role of empathy, and the compensation mechanism through which character realism overrides worldbuilding flaws. The work further integrates insights from narratology, cognitive science, empathy research, and evolutionary reasoning. An extensive appendix develops a multi‑layered evolutionary model showing why existential urgency functions as a reality‑activation mechanism: reflexive responses are insufficient for adaptive survival; neoteny enables cognitive flexibility; hypothetical reasoning expands under existential pressure; and urgency is socially transmitted as a threat‑probability signal. Additional future‑work directions outline how predictive‑coding neuroscience, reinforcement‑learning agents, cognitive literary science, and developmental psychology may provide ethical and empirical support for the theory. Overall, the paper offers a unified theoretical framework explaining why fantastical settings become narratively real when characters exhibit necessity‑driven drama, and why realism collapses when such urgency is absent.