
The challenge of life and literary narrative is the central and perennial mystery of how people encounter, manage, and inhabit a self and a world of their own - and others' - creations. With a nod to the eminent scholar and psychologist Jerome Bruner, Life and Narrative: The Risks and Responsibilities of Storying Experience explores the circulation of meaning between experience and the recounting of that experience to others.A variety of arguments center around the kind of relationship life and narrative share with one another. In this volume, rather than choosing to argue that this relationship is either continuous or discontinuous, editors Brian Schiff, A. Elizabeth McKim, and Sylvie Patron and their contributing authors reject the simple binary and masterfully incorporate a more nuanced approach that has more descriptive appeal and theoretical traction for readers.Exploring such diverse and fascinating topics as 'Narrative and the Law,' 'Narrative Fiction, the Short Story, and Life,' 'The Body as Biography,' and 'The Politics of Memory,' Life and Narrative features important research and perspectives from both up-and-coming researchers and prominent scholars in the field - many of which who are widely acknowledged for moving the needle forward on the study of narrative in their respective disciplines and beyond.
This volume investigates the complex, reciprocal relationship between lived experience and the narrative structures individuals use to interpret and communicate their lives. The editors, Brian Schiff, A. Elizabeth McKim, and Sylvie Patron, curate a collection of essays from prominent scholars and emerging researchers to examine how meaning circulates between personal history and the act of storytelling. By rejecting the binary debate of whether life and narrative are continuous or discontinuous, the authors propose a more nuanced theoretical framework for understanding the construction of the self.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts recognize this volume as a significant contribution to the field of narrative psychology, particularly for its effort to bridge the gap between literary theory and social science. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, making it a resource primarily intended for researchers and advanced students of narrative studies.
Page Count:
371
Publication Date:
2017-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190256672
ISBN-13:
9780190256678
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!