The Formation of a Story - Law, Literature, Life

Author: Jerome Bruner
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Based on a lifetime of research and reflection, the wise psychologist Jerome Bruner reveals the centrality of narrative in life's most critical stages. In this book, the distinguished psychologist and educator Jerome Bruner explores this elusive yet fundamental aspect of human nature, questioning how we use stories to understand our lives. He proposes new, challenging ways to examine narrative: understanding how we tell our stories, discovering how we use narrative to create a sense of self and interpret others' lives, recognizing how literature has changed the concept of what a story is, and learning from law about our expectations of narrative. The result is a masterful and exciting synthesis—of anthropology, psychology, literature, law, and philosophy. In The Formation of Stories, the distinguished psychologist and educator Jerome Bruner explores this elusive yet fundamental aspect of human nature, questioning how we use stories to understand our lives. He proposes new, challenging ways to examine narrative: understanding how we tell our stories, discovering how we use narrative to create a sense of self and interpret others' lives, recognizing how literature has changed the concept of what a story is, and learning from law about our expectations of narrative. The result is a masterful and exciting synthesis—of anthropology, psychology, literature, law, and philosophy. When Bruner wrote his early work, On Knowing: Left-Handed Essays (1962), he believed that "the scientific method could transform general narrative into testable hypotheses." Now, his conclusion is: "I think I made a deep mistake." In The Formation of Stories, Bruner offers a more complex perspective: the strict, well-defined narrative of science about verifiable facts is inextricably intertwined with the "vague and challenging" cultural stories—autobiographies, literature, and legal materials—rich in metaphorical and moral-educational narratives that teach us: who we are and what we can become.