Abstract:

"The narratives of the world are numberless"; yet, all stories may be seen as chapters of a single story, the story of universal evolution as uncovered by contemporary science, with processes of human emergence and cultural development as a prominent backdrop to the understanding of any narrative process. Evolutionary approaches to literary and cultural phenomena (as theorized by socio-biologists like E. O. Wilson and by evo-critics like Joseph Carroll in the literary field) have led to a growing awareness that these literary and cultural phenomena are best accounted for within a consilient disciplinary framework. From this consilient standpoint, human modes of communication must be contextualized as situated historical phenomena, and history as such is to be placed within the wider context of the evolution of human societies and of life generally (what is often called "big history", to use David Christian's term). Using the notions of "narrative mapping" and "narrative anchoring", this paper draws from the aforementioned theoretical outlook a series of conclusions relevant to narratology, in particular to the narratological conceptualization of time and temporal schemata, and to the narrative understanding of evolutionary processes. The importance of evolutionary and historicist conceptual frames regarding the production and analysis of narratives is pointed out, and more specifically their significance for an adequate definition of narrative mapping and narrative anchoring. In a nutshell, narrative anchoring is understood here as the intertextual relationship situating a given evolutionary or historical process within the frame of larger evolutionary processes, for instance an individual story as being typical of a given historical process or situation, or as being framed by it; while narrative mapping is conceived as a wider cognitive process whereby a variety of narrative strategies, themselves historically situated, allow subjects to shape or interpret narratives and to anchor them historically or place them with respect to other narratives. A variety of culture-dependent conceptions of big history underpin the production, the reception and the critical analysis of any specific narrative, as well as any narrativizing strategy, in the sense that these conceptions provide both a general ideational background to the experiences depicted in the narratives, and a mental framework in which to situate (e.g. historicize) the narrative genres used in the depiction. Evolutionary theory is itself a major instance of narrative mapping, and its emergent nature is focused in the paper's conclusion. In this light, Herbert Spencer's philosophical work is examined through the lens of its narratological significance, as a major step in the narrativization of science, and in the concomitant development of a scientific narratology.

Full text:

The Story Behind Any Story:

Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping

http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3769109

José Angel GARCÍA LANDA, "The Story behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping." Preprint from Emerging Vectors of Narratology. Ed. Per Krogh Hansen, John Pier, Philippe Roussin and Wolf Schmid. (Narratologia, 57). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. 567-91.

30 Pages Posted: 11 Mar 2021

José Angel García Landa

Universidad de Zaragoza

Date Written: 2014

Abstract

Keywords: Evolution, Evolutionism, Narratology, Narrative, Narrative Theory, Emergence, Complexity, Cosmology, Cognitive Mapping, Intertextuality, Semiotics, Cognition, Philosophy, Herbert Spencer

Suggested Citation:

Garcia Landa, Jose Angel, The Story Behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping (2014). José Angel GARCÍA LANDA, "The Story behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping." In Emerging Vectors of Narratology. Ed. Per Krogh Hansen, John Pier, Philippe Roussin and Wolf Schmid. (Narratologia, 57). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. 567-91.

Preprint available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3769109 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3769109

eJournal Classifications
LIT Subject Matter eJournals Literary Theory & Criticism eJournal - CMBO
HistoryRN Subject Matter eJournals Amet: Environmental History & Review eJournal - CMBO
HistoryRN Subject Matter eJournals The Repository: Historiographical eJournal - CMBO

PRN Subject Matter eJournals History of Western Philosophy eJournal - CMBO PRN: 19th Century Philosophy (Topic) - CMBO
PRN Subject Matter eJournals Philosophy of Science eJournal - CMBO PRN: General Philosophy of Science (Topic) - CMBO

Also here:

_____. "The Story behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping." In Emerging Vectors of Narratology. Ed. Per Krogh Hansen, John Pier, Philippe Roussin and Wolf Schmid. (Narratologia, 57). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2017. 567-91.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110555158

https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9783110555158/9783110555158-026/9783110555158-026.xml

2017

_____. "The Story Behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping." In García Landa, Vanity Fea 5 Sept. 2017.*

http://vanityfea.blogspot.com.es/2017/09/the-story-behind-any-story-evolution.html

2017

_____. "The Story Behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping." SSRN 11 March 2021.*

https://ssrn.com/abstract=3769109

http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3769109

2021

Literary Theory & Criticism eJournal 11 March 2021.*

https://www.ssrn.com/link/English-Lit-Theory-Criticism.html