Interdisciplinary Evolutionary Consilient Narratology

—a posting to the Narrative-L:

Dear all,
There is a facebook group on EVOLUTIONARY NARRATOLOGY, and members are welcome. The site will be interesting for those with an interest in interdisciplinary narrative theory and narratology generally, for those interested in evoulutionary theory (both Big History and evolutionary sociobiology) and, well, for those with an interest on the interface between these fields, and in a consilient approach to the humanities. Please visit:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/115505095152536/

—while you have yourselves a merry little 2015.

—oOo—

This is the original description of the Facebook EVOLUTIONARY NARRATOLOGY Group: 

This group is for people interested in narratology and evolutionary theory, who want to see the first theory firmly embedded within the second. This group is also for people who strongly disagree with such a view. This group is even for people who confess to be "agnostic" about the issue, but is interested anyhow. Discussions, rants and recommendations are hereby encouraged.

Narratology, largely structuralist/formalist or cognitive in orientation, might well profit from a deeper anthropological framework, a Darwinian framework. Evolutionary approaches like evolutionary psychology, sociobiology, behavioral ecology, etc., have developed into a rich smorgasbord of great potential for understanding and explaining narrative activity in and by human organisms. Evolutionary Narratology studies the narrative animal.

The 1990s saw the birth of the Darwinian paradigm within literary theory and criticism. Prominent among the founders of 'Literary Darwinism' are Joseph Carroll and Jonathan Gottschall. Regarding stories and art in general, major contributions come from Ellen Dissanayake, Brian Boyd, Dennis Dutton, and others. (See this page for further detail and historical context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_Darwinism)

Also, in film studies, a handful of academics walking under the cognitivist umbrella, draw upon evolutionary ideas, e.g., Joseph Anderson and Dirk Eitzen. Lately, David Bordwell, the cognitivist film professor par excellence, is also starting to make forays into Darwinia. Yet, narratology is particular neither to film nor literature. Narratology is about stories, storytelling and -consumption, regardless of medium.

Stories are told by human organisms, to human organisms, about human organisms. Whether telling, being told to, or told about, evolutionary approaches should be able to cast light upon the human psychology and behaviour in question. Furthermore, stories have been told ever since humans evolved the required linguistic and mental capacities, which might be as far back as 250,000 years ago. The implication is that narrativity should be fundamentally approached as a biological and evolutionary phenomenon.

What's more, Evolutionary Narratology should start out with questions pertaining to the 'epic Ur-situation', the basic, natural and unrefined situation of face-to-face, human storytelling and -consumption, whether the historical context of this activity be paleolithic or post-postmodern. This would be seen as a much-needed corrective to structuralist narratology's skewed generalizations from the highly artificial, modernist narrative experiments of the 1900s

—oOo—

And don't let's forget a "sister page" in Spanish and English, one I opened before I got accepted as an administrator and member of the above group:

Narratología evolucionista / Evolutionary narratology:

https://www.facebook.com/narratologiaevolucionista

I'm so far the only active member of this page, and the most active one in both. Everything in Evolutionary Narratology gets posted in Narratología Evolucionista, but not vice versa, as the Spanglish page is more catholic in both language and subject matter. Not in religion though.