Storylife : on epic, narrative, and living things / Joel P. Christensen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Christensen, Joel (Joel P.), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Narration (Rhetoric).

Epic poetry, Greek--History and criticism.

Epic poetry, Greek.

Physical Description:

x, 234 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Story life

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Combining ancient epic and myth with analogies from biology and the natural world, Joel P. Christensen explores the creative process and how narratives develop. This bold work urges readers to treat narratives as living things with their own agency in the world. Christensen starts by using Homeric epic to explore the way language and meaning develop alongside audiences in complex ecosystems and then moves through storytelling in the ancient Mediterranean over a thousand years. In this study, which ranges from the evolution of narratives to viral ideas, and to the dangerous side of stories in mass shootings and war, we see how narratives function as independent entities with consequences that cause lasting harm. Connecting his argument to the present day, Christensen addresses contemporary cultural panics, including AI and ChatGPT, 'post-truth' or alt-facts in the digital age, and free speech and cancel culture. Storylife invites readers to rethink human creativity, the importance of collective actions, and the lives we build together with and against narrative. In an age rife with misinformation, it is time to reconsider how much control we have over stories and how to educate ourselves once we acknowledge the power that narrative exerts over us." -- Publisher's description.

Contents:

Introduction. Stories about origins and design

Scripts for life : from DNA to poetic formula

Recombinations and change : ring structures in nature and speech

Crabs and the monomyth : parallel evolutions and mythical patterns

Going viral : big deeds and bad fame

Symbiosis and paradigm : what stories do in the world

Conclusion. Inoculation and the limits of analogy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-224) and index.

ISBN:

9780300269239

0300269234

OCLC:

1449674486