system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I'm interested in what *is happening* when we compose and read fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Which branch of philosophy and authors should I be looking at?

I completed my undergrad education in English and Philosophy, with a strong emphasis on literary theory on the English side and Philosophy of Religion and Language on that end. 

It isn't surprising that this is where my interest is, then! 

Questions like these have been on my mind: 

* *How, if at all, does a piece of writing actually represent the reality it claims to represent?* 
* *What does it mean for an author to "tell the truth?"* 
* *What assumptions do readers have to make before they can engage in reading fiction, poetry, nonfiction, etc.? Are there any assumptions that, if not adopted before reading, make the reading incomprehensible to the reader?* 

I did a bit of work involving the truth in fiction, so I've read David Lewis and his whole 'school' of similarly interested logicians. My interest is less in logic and semantics and more in pinning down a definition for the act of reading and writing. 

Where do I go from here?
gpt
Check out Gadamer and Bruner and hermeneutics; going from there, Barthes is a good read. Hermeneutics is the study of interpretation, and addresses some of the questions you're asking, and Barthes famously coined "the death of the author," which is important to the contemporary understanding of hermeneutics and texts in culture.