Literary notes about Factitious (AI summary)
In literature, authors use "factitious" to denote something that is artificially contrived or false in appearance, rather than genuine or natural. It often describes emotions, behaviors, or even physical attributes that are feigned or constructed for effect, as when a character’s strength is portrayed in a manner that seems deliberately manufactured [1] or when a smile conceals true feelings behind its artificiality [2]. The term can also critique societal or institutional conventions, highlighting how rules, aristocracies, or precepts are not born of organic development but are imposed or pretended [3][4]. In its varied use, "factitious" serves to underscore a dissonance between appearance and essence throughout storytelling.
- However, he had enough strength in him—factitious no doubt—to very nearly make an end of us, as you shall hear directly.
— from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - But the cleverest women hide their real selves behind a factitious smile.
— from The Dangerous Age: Letters and Fragments from a Woman's Diary by Karin Michaëlis - Every factitious precept and conventional law was now overthrown; these poetical Protestants broke away entirely from the yoke of tradition.
— from The Works of Frederick Schiller by Friedrich Schiller - That is, if society were not factitious, every woman, without exception, would be utterly dependent upon marriage for a living.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 94, August, 1865 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various
