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:
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
Date Written: 2014
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.
LIT Subject Matter eJournals
|
|
HistoryRN Subject Matter eJournals
|
|
HistoryRN Subject Matter eJournals
|
|
|
|
PRN Subject Matter eJournals
|
|
PRN Subject Matter eJournals
|
|
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
2021
Amet:
Environmental History & Review eJournal 11 March 2021.*
https://www.ssrn.com/link/Amet-Environmental-History-Rev.html
2021
The
Repository: Historiographical Journal 11 March 2021.*
https://www.ssrn.com/link/The-Repository-Historiographical.html
2021
History
of Western Philosophy eJournal 11 March 2021.*
https://www.ssrn.com/link/History-of-Western-Philosophy.html
2021
Philosophy
of Science eJournal 11 March 2021.*
https://www.ssrn.com/link/Philosophy-Science.html
2021
_____.
"The Story Behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative
Mapping." Academia 31 Jan.
2021.*
https://www.academia.edu/45020020/
2021
_____.
"The Story Behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative
Mapping." ResearchGate 31 Jan.
2021.*
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318922652
2021
_____.
"The Story Behind Any Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative
Mapping." Humanities Commons 31
March 2021.*
https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:38065/
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110555158
2021
_____. "The Story Behind Any
Story: Evolution, Historicity, and Narrative Mapping." In García Landa, Vanity Fea 31 March 2021.*
https://vanityfea.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-story-behind-any-story-evolution.html
2021
_____. "The Story Behind Any Story: Evolution,
Historicity, and Narrative Mapping." Net Sight de José Angel García
Landa 22 Dec. 2022.*
https://personal.unizar.es/garciala/publicaciones/StoryBehind.pdf
2022
The Story Behind Any Story: The Paris Lecture
—oOo—
