Relating Narratives: Storytelling and Selfhood

by Adriana Cavarero

A major new work by the philosopher and feminist thinker Adriana Cavarero, this is a fascinating and challenging account of the relationship between the structure of the self and the structure of narrative.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, Feminism, Writing, Womens, Italian Literature

180 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

About the author

Adriana Cavarero teaches philosophy of politics at the University of Verona, Italy, and is a visiting professor at New York University. Her field of research includes classical, modern and contemporary thought, with a special focus on the political significance of philosophy. Two main concerns shape her approach to the Western philosophical tradition. First, the 'thought of sexual difference', a theoretical perspective that enables the deconstruction of Western textuality from a feminist standpoint. Second, the thought of Hannah Arendt, reinterpreted in its most innovative categories: birth, uniqueness, action and narration. The result is an inquiry that foregrounds the individual and unique existence of the human being, as related to body and gender. Cavarero resists both the solitary abstraction of the philosophical Subject, and the volatile fragmentation of the postmodern subject, in the name of the living uniqueness of a self being generated through plural relationships with other human beings, and the acceptance of the constraints of individuality and the body.

Reviews

[Clara Mundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5
god i can’t wait to read fiction again

[Aya Nassar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a hope-restoring read. I find solace in Arendt's work, and Cavarero picks exactly that philosophical premise that makes Arendt an antidote for our times. She cuts through the debates in deconstruction, post-modern feminism, and extends Arendt in a way that remains - I think- faithful to the ethical traction of her project. A layered but generous reading of Arendt, Homer, Stein, and a beautiful walk among heroes, lovers and story tellers.

I wasn't supposed to read this book. I checked it out from the library for all the wrong reasons. I started reading it- contrary to my habit- from the beginning. The beginning is always an introduction by someone who didn't write the book, and I never make that mistake. But I did, and it hurled the book on a shelf, until someone else placed a hold on it. I was taking it from the shelf to check it for one last glance- and I couldn't stop reading it. I still haven't read the introduction, and I think I'll just return it un-introduced.

[Leslie Wexler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A philosophical concentration on the who of identity that creates what Cavarero terms a "narratable self". This narratable self requires a "necessary other" with which to relate the narrative of their life.

[booksummoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5
•
“Raccontare la storia che ogni esistenza si lascia dietro è forse il gesto più antico di tale cura. Non necessariamente una storia che aspiri a immortalarsi nell'empireo letterario - come vorrebbe la stessa Hannah Arendt, quando pensa a Omero - ma piuttosto il tipo di storia il cui racconto si appaesa persino negli angoli delle cucine, davanti a un caffè, oppure sul treno, quando sono costretti ad ascoltarla anche quelli che non la vorrebbero sentire.”

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard to capture the subtle brilliance which radiates from Adriana Cavarero’s slim volume, Relating Narratives. Starting with a simple premise - that philosophy, from its very beginning in Plato, has eclipsed the singularity of the ‘who’ of the individual in favour of its abstraction in the ‘what’ - Cavarero weaves a new way of thinking the possibility of ethical relations. Inspired in a large way by the work of Hannah Arendt, the focus on the unique and irreplaceable status of the "I” leads Cavarero to consider the essentially ‘narratable' condition of the self: the fact that, regardless of the ‘content’ of one’s life story, one will, for all that, have a story to begin with.

Craverro’s book itself is something like a philosophical storytale, populated with characters drawn from the horizon of the literary, as much as the philosophical imagination. Oedipus, Ulysses, Scheherazade, Orpheus, Eurydice and the Sphinx are just a few among the cast from which Cavarero crafts her thesis. Indeed, a great deal of the book consists in trying to elucidate what she calls ‘the paradox of Ulysses’: the situation in which, like Ulysses at the court of the Phaeacians, we hear and come to know our own stories only from the narrations of others. What sort of ethical consequences follow, asks Cavarero, when we are the protagonists, but not the authors of our own life stories?

In answering this question, Cavarero sets herself against ‘postmodernist’ positions which argue for the primacy of texts (at the expense of the narratable life whose story is in fact told), as well as Heideggerian understandings of narrative as related from the perspective of death (at the expense of desire, which is always oriented, Cavarero argues, to the ‘here and now’ of narration. In this respect, there’s an interesting comparison to be made between this work and Martin Hagglund’s Dying For Time, which offers a similar, but nonetheless different account of desire). Like Arendt before her, Cavarero mines the resources of narrative for its relation to life and natality, rather than death and mortification.

So the themes involved here are heady, to say the least. But for all that, one of the joys of reading Relating Narratives is precisely the way in which it delivers insight after insight in clear and eminently readable ways. Although clearly informed by contemporary continental philosophy, Cavarero shares little of its prolixity, while nonetheless retaining the intellectual athleticism that makes the whole enterprise so engaging. Whether it’s on the status of women and storytelling, or reflections on love and friendship (the four incandescent pages on love are themselves worth the price of the book), Relating Narratives radiates with intelligence, grace, and hope for an ethics worth pursuing.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adriana Cavarero traz uma análise muito interessante sobre a narrativa, que ela chama de filosofia da narração, nesta publicação chamada Olha-me e narra-me. A autora italiana se baseia imensamente na mitologia greco-romana e na filosofia de Hanna Arendt para trazer definições de memória, narração, identidade, autobiografia, biografia e autoficção. Ela não está simplesmente falando de narrativa no sentido literário neste livro, mas de existência e de experiência. Lança mão de um belo insight sobre a diferença entre os estilos de narração do gênero masculino e do feminino. Enquanto o primeiro parece necesssitar da presença de heróis que mediem a identidade, a experiência e a atitude/ação, o segundo precisa construir sempre seus próprios termos e atividades à sombra do outro. Por isso, a autora acredita que a biografia seja do reino do homem enquanto a autobiografia dos domínios das mulheres. As duas primeiras partes que abordam essas diferenças são muito esclarecedoras. Já as partes seguintes perdem um pouco o brilho do início. Ainda assim recomendo fortemente a leitura para quem se interessa por assuntos do tipo.

[Federica Di Gaetano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi sono sentita veramente stupida.
A parte gli scherzi, non è un testo semplice.

[Steve Chisnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cavarero does an enormous service to the study of literature, of narrative, of our lives: she helps us understand the psychological desire all of us have to hear our stories. She goes further to argue that the narratability of the self is, in the end, the only means to achieve a trueness of self, a "Who" rather than the philosophical "what." It is a shifting of the ontological quest for identity from a centered, stable self (a Western universal idea) to an external, dynamic, and unique telling--a relational idea, captured in the telling by another. In other words, there is a true epistemological framing to be found in the ever-shifting relationships of storytelling, one that is naturally suited to the feminine.

For this reason, Cavarero is worth reading, no matter how obscure or convoluted her language makes these claims.

However, while she employs literary and mythological tales to illustrate her theory through the book, she repeatedly claims these anecdotes as evidence for the universality of her ideas. That is, all other epistemologies are now suspect, and the psychological desire and role of narrative is thereby "inevitable" and "always." (*Sigh.*) She denies in the first scant 20 pages the entirety of Western thought, masculine knowledge, universality, post-modern literary theory, other uses for narrative, and--for me, the most important--any notion of a unique self as a unique actor capable of making choices. Everything about the self is external, not to be found in the self, at all. Couple this with a few sentences decrying that traditional rhetorical practices and argument can have no legitimate rejoinder to her claim, and the reading of this text becomes hugely frustrating.

So why give it three stars, at all? Because she taught me to think about narrative in new and important ways, about meaningful storks and relational movement of epistemology. Those are a win, even though I wholly reject her absolutism.

[eurydice · Rating 4 out of 5]

— il "chi" di emilia si manifesta qui con chiarezza nella percezione di un sé narrabile che desidera il racconto della propria storia di vita, ma è l'altra [...] la sola a poter realizzare tale narrazione. [...] scrivendola per lei [...] amalia le dà una forma tangibile, ne abbozza la figura, ne suggerisce l'unità. [...] fino al punto di far piangere l'amica. la quale piange perché riconosce in essa l'oggetto del proprio desiderio.

lettura tanto desiderata, poiché accese la fantasia di elena ferrante e contribuì alla genesi dell'Amica geniale – come spiegano le bellissime pagine de I margini e il dettato. ho amato particolarmente l'interpretazione del mito di orfeo ed euridice e, per ragioni ancor più ovvie, conservo nel cuore con cura (e speranza di riutilizzarlo presto) il discorso sulla forza narrativa delle amicizie femminili.

[Sara Rocutto]

Anche se è interessante io credo che il rischio abbandono sia alto... Alcuni ragionamenti partono da presupposti che non so se siano più luoghi comuni o questioni reali... Inoltre capisco che la grecità è importante, ma dopo un po' ... ^_^

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

chiques. un must creo. es uno de mis textos centrales para el tfg pero recomiendo para leer de apie también. sobretodo recomiendo la tercera parte: LOVERS. Sobre como el yo es narrarle y la identidad se crea through esta narratividad (? aún figuring it out...)

[Maeve O'Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really love! Italian feminist theory rocks. especially love in theory when an application/example becomes so developed they can refer back to it (in this case Odysseus) as a symbol for the rest of the book. just something i enjoy. lol
actually a lot of form inspo on this one its so beautiful

[Fausto Lammoglia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro interessante, incentrato sulla biografia e l’autobiografia. Trae a piene mani da Harendt e si consiglia per fruirne al meglio, di avere un’infarinatura dei racconti della Blixen.

[Roy Kenagy]

ILL request DMPL 8/3/2024

[Bailey Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

bible

[Thiago Da silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bellissimo, bellissimo libro!!!

[Nilsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

hope!

[Silvia Fusar · Rating 5 out of 5]

“La gioia dell’amore sta nella nudità di un apparire condiviso, di una comparizione che non sopporta qualificazioni ma semplicemente espone due unicità l’una all’altra”

[Bluebookworms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finire questo libro è stata un’impresa. Mi è stato consigliato dalla mia relatrice di tesi: “è un po’ complicato ma sono sicura che riuscirai a leggerlo e ti piacerà”.

Tratta temi molto interessanti prendendo spunti dalla letteratura antica che a ma piace, però l’ho trovato abbastanza impegnativo.

Mi è capitato spesso di perdere il filo: praticamente di 187 pagine io credo di averne lette 476.

Ripeto il tema è molto bello, mi ha aperto la mente su ambiti che non conoscevo e ne prenderò spunto per la mia tesi, ma l’ho trovato tosto.


Se vuoi saperne di più seguimi su instagram @blue_bookworms !!