Role of Narrative

Ulysses deriding Polyphemus, Joseph Mallord William Turner

We use narrative as social beings, aspiring mortals, and meaning seeking creatures to inspire and amuse, create and reveal, learn and explore. Long ago we were gathering around the evening fire as a ritual to hear tales and share stories. Many of the immortal names we still utter in reverence are authors or their characters that endure, retold to successive generations. Narrative has the power to create alterity, transport into another world, connect us in our shared humanity, and challenge what we know of reality and ourselves. Immersing ourselves in narrative and persisting in the habit of reading has some important roles.

Accessibility

Narrative is a way to make ideas accessible to any reader, not just the present interlocutors, connecting with the other. The form is an intentional and effective device for Socrates. The reader is represented by the interlocutors, and the reader identifies with them; they make the moves the reader would make, share the same common sense, and take part in the same imperfect approach to life, reason, and emotions. Because of this echo, the authors’ ideas are hypotheses applied to the reader as the narrative process unfolds to the interlocutors. The message of the author is able to provoke thinking, invoke emotions, or invite the reader to consider a more objective approach to life. The author addresses some essence of humanity, so the ideas resonate with everyone. The universal character of these texts give them the power to go beyond millennia and defeat geographical borders. Narrative has no regard for boundaries, it is free and evocative. If there are no boundaries, the narrative is accessible to all.

Echo

The imagination is an important difference between humans and animals. The first sign of humanity is when there is an imagination of what happens after death, making present the absent. A narrative does the same, making present something that is hidden in the soul of the reader by using images that resonate, an echo as a mystical and holistic approach. The narrative touches something essential to humanity, identified by each individual. The mythology of the ancient world is still told today because of the way the stories reflect the human desire to be seen and to understand, while the text is rich with availability to interpretation. Images give birth to humanity, from narrative for the child to make landmarks in their existence. Everyone has an appetite for stories because they address what it is to be human and the place of humanity in the world. Narrative offers more than an individual can acquire alone.

Aesthetic

There is an aesthetic dimension in narrative. As a beautiful landscape, stories do not have to make sense to be pleasant. Colors, varieties, purity, details, and other forms make the concept behind the painting aesthetic. The joy of being within the world of the narrative makes the stories approachable, allowing the reader to desire to engage with them, because the work does not look like a mathematical word problem with a correct answer, but a text open to many possibilities of interpretation. The narrative offers freedom, adventure, and aspirations to live in and experience a different time and space. The text is digestible, but at the same time full of provocations to unpack. The joy of beauty evolves into the joy of contemplating the new considerations the narrative brings.

Engagement

Narrative is a way to engage universality in the thinking process in a way that feels effortless. This engagement is different from direct abstract theory that a small elite can access in university halls. If there is no abstraction demonstrated, there are still concepts and challenges which are transmitted. The taste is better for the majority—it is desirable to consume it. Like the Roman bread and circuses, the medicine is given in a form the people want, and they easily appreciate the medicine. The effortlessness results in a general effect on humanity, more universal. At the same time, the narrative is intimate, a sense of belonging and sharing with the other when narratives are transmitted. The confidence creates relationships, while the alterity is not a problem because each individual can identify with the narrative, there is nothing for them to defend. The reader can identify with the sins of the Samaritan woman, the instinctual reaction of the samurai, the desire to be recognized of the cunning man, and the mourning of the mother.

Magic

As a shaman who uses song, the characters use magic words that are fascinating and create some effect on the reader. In the old ages, the priest referred to gods by telling stories that are the magic of purification and creating miracles with sick people. As an invocation, the words are used not just to fascinate and attract attention but also to have a performative effect on the reader. The beginning of the Brothers Karamazov has this power of magic by saying the good words in the good moment, creating rehabilitation of the interlocutor. There is magical tension between the divine and the reader through the words of the mediator, as a canal to the service of magical spirits. Human beings can easily fall into their lazy, mundane patterns of supporting their life passively. They have the experience that they need some alterity to provoke them to critically think and actively live. The narrative provides the magical element to get them out of this modality, to examine their life, to recognize their choices, and to stop being a victim.

This text is an excerpt from an article published in the IRCEP journal. Follow the link to read the full article:

Cook, K. E. & Varache, P. (2024). Religious Figures as Philosophers. Interdisciplinary Research in Counseling, Ethics and Philosophy. 4(10), 13-49. https://doi.org/10.59209/ircep.v4i10.73