Tag Archives: narrative

To Understand Your Life, Read Novels

By Robin Bates | Published: January 31, 2023

Theorist Peter Brooks contends that it is through novels that we find shape and meaning to our lives.

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The Usefulness of “Let’s Pretend”

By Robin Bates | Published: January 24, 2023

In “Seduced by Story,” Brooks challenges the idea that literature is meant to be useful. Instead, he says, it resembles play (and then acknowledges that play itself is useful).

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Fiction as Authoritarian Weapon

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2022

In “Seduced by Story,” Peter Brooks warns of the dangers of narrative. Borges agrees in “Tlon Uqbar.”

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Are We Watching Shakespeare or Beckett?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2019

Friday When assuring my English majors that they will find jobs in the world beyond college, I sometimes point out that they are experts in narrative. Increasingly we are learning how much we process reality through stories, and political operatives talk ceaselessly about “controlling the narrative.” How you organize facts (or for that matter, lies) […]

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With Stories We Defeat Our Inner Moriarty

By Robin Bates | Published: January 4, 2016

In the most recent episode of “Sherlock,” Holmes is not only the world’s foremost detective but a skilled literary critic of Doyle’s stories about him.

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Please, Writers–More Complex Narratives

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2013

Sports narratives that look only at winning and losing are simplistic and misleading.

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Riveted by Competing Campaign Narratives

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2012

Political campaigns have come to be seen as competing narratives, providing those who understand fiction with special insight.

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Father, Son, Holy Spirit – A Story for Each

By Robin Bates | Published: June 3, 2012

Can different members of the Holy Trinity be seen to shape different narratives?

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Science Tells Us Lit Helps Us with Life

By Robin Bates | Published: March 27, 2012

Recent brain research indicates that fiction helps us “understand the complexities of social life.”

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