Article:Making Stories
From unthinkMedia
In this book Bruner eloquently illustrates various examples in how narrative is so deeply ingrained in our daily routines that it "seem almos as natural as language itself" (pg 3). Some of his observations are so obvious that it never occurred to me that many of our everyday communication where comprised largely of narrative. We are all story tellers and listeners, and learn how to do both at very young ages. At 2 and half years old, my daughter has mastered the art of "shifting the blame" and effortlessly communicates her perspective on hey it is important for me to buy her a book when ever we go to Barnes and Nobel.
Contents |
What are Stories
Stories always have an intention and a perspective on the event that being narrated. They also contain "peripeteia", what Aristotle defines as "a sudden reversal of circumstances, which swiftly turn a routine sequence of events into a story."
Stories allow us to make "later real life references possible...we refer to events and things and people by expressions that situate them, not just in an indifferent world, but in a narrative one". Heros and villans could only exist through the existence of a story. Fictional stories have the capacity to deeply effect our experience in both the fictional world and the real world. "Great fiction proceeds by making the familiar and the ordinary strange again."(9)
Stories create alternate realities that give new perspective to our own realities. They provide models of the world. Bruner gives examples on how powerful narratives could be by offering the ability to view the world through a new perspective such as the Harlem Renaissance and it's effect on Brown vs. Board of Education. These collection of playwrights, poets and novelist humanized the plight of African American living with the mockery of Jim Crow's separate but equal doctrine.
Why is it important to understand Narratives
- control it or sanitize its effects. An example of this would be a courtroom, and being able to identify narrative elements. Bruner stetes that "cases are decided not only on their legal merits but on the artfulness of an attorney's narrative." Psychiatry also uses this knowledge to help their patients tell the "right kid of story"
- To "cultivate its illusion of reality"
- Narrative offers us the ability to "read each others intentions".
Expectations
Humans are always trying to set expectations. The reason they do this is so that they are able to plan. This require us to understand how nature works, and how others will respond. "It is our narrative gift that gives us the power to make sense of things when they don't". It allows use to attempt to predict, "what might happen if...."
In reality we can't read minds, and the unexpected twist and turns of our own stories, and those around us are what breaks the monotony, and raises our attention level. Human attention alerts us of any breaks from a routine.
Ingredients of a Story
Kenneth Burke states that stories require: "Agents who performs an Action to achieve a Goal in a recognizable Setting by the use of certain Means. What drives the story is a misfit between the elements...Trouble"
Self
Freud see the "self" as being unconscious. According to him, where there is id there shall be ego. Bruner argues that we are constantly redefining and building on ourselves to meet the needs of the situation that we encounter. We do this by referencing our past, along with our hopes and fears for our future.
Self making comes from both "inside" and "outside":
- inside: memories, feelings, ideas, beliefs, subjectivity
- esteem of others, expectations from society, family, culture, etc
This requires a balancing act that allows for "commitment to others as well as being true to oneself"
Interesting Quotes
"Only when we suspect that we have the wrong story do we begin asking how a narrative may structure (or distort) our view of how things really are."
A story doesn't just bring it's characters to life. Metaphorically they bring us to life by allowing us to see ourselves in the characters.
