What do you think?
Rate this book
Narratives and Narrators: A Philosophy of Stories
Narratives are artefacts of a special they are intentionally crafted devices which fulfil their story-telling function by manifesting the intentions of their makers. But narrative itself is too inclusive a category for much more to be said about it than this; we should focus attention instead on the vaguely defined but interesting category of things rich in narrative structure. Such devices offer significant possibilities, not merely for the representation of stories, but for the expression of point of view; they have also played an important role in the evolution of reliable communication. Narratives and narrators argues that much of the pleasure of narrative communication depends on deep-seated and early developing tendencies in human beings to imitation and to joint attention, and imitation turns out to be the key to understanding such important literary techniques as free indirect discourse and character-focused narration. The book also examines irony in narrative, with
an emphasis on the idea of the expression of ironic points of view. It looks closely at the idea of character, or robust, situation-independent ways of acting and thinking, as it is represented in narrative. It asks whether scepticism about the notion of character should have us reassess the dramatic and literary tradition which places such emphasis on character.
an emphasis on the idea of the expression of ironic points of view. It looks closely at the idea of character, or robust, situation-independent ways of acting and thinking, as it is represented in narrative. It asks whether scepticism about the notion of character should have us reassess the dramatic and literary tradition which places such emphasis on character.
- GenresPhilosophyLiterature
266 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 2010
3 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Gregory Currie
25 books5 followersGregory Currie is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of York.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 18, 2023
This book has a terrific table of contents. It promises to address some perplexing issues in the heart of storytelling. How could storytelling hide deep philosophical questions, you might wonder. Well, it does. For example, Who tells the story?
A naïve reader might assume the answer is “the author.” But any fiction writer will tell you that’s not right. The author invents a narrator to tell the story from that narrator’s point of view and with that narrator’s belief system. That’s why Herman Melville is not Captain Ahab. They’re completely different personalities. Incredibly, however, Currie asserts that there is no important distinction between the author and the narrator. The author obviously wrote the story, so that’s the end of it.
It's an incredibly shallow point of view from a sophisticated philosopher, making the book all the more frustrating. Obviously, Currie does not write fiction or he’d immediately realize that his commitment to naïve realism buries the possibilities of imagination.
Other philosophical questions about stories include, Why do people tell stories? Does the listener or reader of a story believe that the characters are real? Or, that the whole enterprise is nonsense because “it’s all just made-up stuff?”
How should we understand an “unreliable narrator,” a character like Humbert Humbert, for example, who tells us “what happened,” but who is clearly a liar. And how do we deal with the story-within-a-story, such as the multiple tales told to Genghis Kahn by Marco Polo in Calvino’s “Invisible Cities?” What about stories that refer to themselves, such as Pirandello’s “Six Characters?” What do we mean by saying Flaubert’s work shows “realism,” while Neil Gaiman’s is “fantasy?” Where between them lie Isaac Asimov’s stories?
These are gripping questions for any serious student of literature but this book doesn’t have answers. The author’s stubborn realism, apparent lack of imagination, and presumed omniscience lead to tedious trivialities about dozens of fascinating topics, revealing nothing. He seems largely blind to the social dimension of storytelling, treating “communication” merely as reports of observations about the world. Someone interested in literary narration would do far better to read Aristotle’s “Poetics.”
Currie, Gregory (2010). Narratives & Narration: A Philosophy of Stories. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 243 pp.
A naïve reader might assume the answer is “the author.” But any fiction writer will tell you that’s not right. The author invents a narrator to tell the story from that narrator’s point of view and with that narrator’s belief system. That’s why Herman Melville is not Captain Ahab. They’re completely different personalities. Incredibly, however, Currie asserts that there is no important distinction between the author and the narrator. The author obviously wrote the story, so that’s the end of it.
It's an incredibly shallow point of view from a sophisticated philosopher, making the book all the more frustrating. Obviously, Currie does not write fiction or he’d immediately realize that his commitment to naïve realism buries the possibilities of imagination.
Other philosophical questions about stories include, Why do people tell stories? Does the listener or reader of a story believe that the characters are real? Or, that the whole enterprise is nonsense because “it’s all just made-up stuff?”
How should we understand an “unreliable narrator,” a character like Humbert Humbert, for example, who tells us “what happened,” but who is clearly a liar. And how do we deal with the story-within-a-story, such as the multiple tales told to Genghis Kahn by Marco Polo in Calvino’s “Invisible Cities?” What about stories that refer to themselves, such as Pirandello’s “Six Characters?” What do we mean by saying Flaubert’s work shows “realism,” while Neil Gaiman’s is “fantasy?” Where between them lie Isaac Asimov’s stories?
These are gripping questions for any serious student of literature but this book doesn’t have answers. The author’s stubborn realism, apparent lack of imagination, and presumed omniscience lead to tedious trivialities about dozens of fascinating topics, revealing nothing. He seems largely blind to the social dimension of storytelling, treating “communication” merely as reports of observations about the world. Someone interested in literary narration would do far better to read Aristotle’s “Poetics.”
Currie, Gregory (2010). Narratives & Narration: A Philosophy of Stories. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 243 pp.
Displaying 1 of 1 review