Fiction as Lit crit

Plays on realism or on writing may have come about as a reaction to this and an attempt to assert how things could be if x and y were true or we communicated like this. The logical conclusion of x and y is z, and x and y are plausible and are like and unlike the real world.

I think the difference is in where you are grounded and how much the real and imaginary worlds define.

Any representation involves reduction, but the ideal is a compression into diamonds, or some kind of clarity, value to be determined, if you're so inclined.
Example of fiction as lit crit: Don Quixote was supposed to be a takeoff on themes of chivalry, as presented in what was considered art as well as trash, also on what this effect had on audience, the way some of them ran with it. Right?

what effect *this* ( chivalry in art & other) had on its audience, that is.

Poster Dow: AFAIK part II of Quixote reflects on part I -- but I'm afraid I haven't yet read it.

re my comment above, another relevant word would be 'parable'.

Some writers explicitly write parables of some kind: Borges, Kafka. Others might write stories that we loosely say are parables of something. But ... the critic is forbidden to explain the parable? That seems like something that could itself be made into a parable.