Stories That Make Us Who We Are

We are not surprised when we meet someone who tells us about his "life story". It is so familiar that everyone has a story that we have no reason to be surprised. This is a concept that we do not find worth thinking about; It's not even interesting. Randall spoils the game by holding a magnifying glass over this commonplace metaphor. We are used to novel/story characters being subjected to psychological analysis; But Randall turns this habit upside down and introduces "real characters" into the "fictional" world of literature. We do not have a story that is independent of us and that really follows us from life. If we have a story, it only exists because we "say" it exists. We create it. Why do we do this? What good does it do to think that we are living a story or simply "being" a story? By pursuing this seemingly simple question, Randall steps into a vast ground of thought where many disciplines draw; from psychology to sociology, history, anthropology, literature, education, theology, philosophy, philosophy of history and ethics to aesthetics. What is the relationship of our story to the process of creating ourselves? What does this story look like? Is it a single story, what role do we play in it? Why do we want to tell this story? And most importantly, are we the authors of this story? Do we have a chance to change it, to rewrite it? Randall, who is looking for a way to transform living from a craft into an art, tracing an art of living; He thinks that the relationships between experience and art, life and literature, psychology and poetics constitute critical resources in terms of this effort. According to Randall, enriching our vocabulary of literary forms, understanding the nature and importance of stories, knowing that relying on the "story threshold" represents the transition from childhood to adulthood; It will make it easier for us to understand what our life stories are like and where they come from and where they are going. The more our understanding of this subject develops, the more our mastery of the art of living, which consists of telling the story of our lives over and over again, will increase. This interpretation, which Randall describes as "an indefinite extension," suggests that as our mastery of the art of improvisation and invention increases, our ability to contribute to the wealth of the world will strengthen, no matter how poor our lives may be in other respects. Saying that he writes on the "poetics of self-creation", Randall reveals an unexpected richness before us by digging under the ordinary. While reading "Stories That Make Us", you will not be able to help but ponder the surprising complexity of your own "story". This book aims to determine the features that distinguish humans from other animals and presents a new item to our obsessive curiosity: Human is an animal that claims to have a story.



Number of Pages: 395

Year of Printing: 2014


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Details Publications

First Print Year: 1999

Number of Pages: 395

Language Turkish