For example, the first narrative of the Jewish people is the Old Testament. Through the discussion of it throughout history, as by history itself, new context has been added to that first narrative, and the narrative was extended by the Talmud as well as by Hasidic Stories or by the Holocaust.
A narrative about particular incidents may change over time. Some details
are becoming more important than others, the pespectives are enhanced or
narrowed.
Were we to speak of the narrative of the American people, it
would undoubtly include pilgrims, great revolutionaries, and statesmen,
as well as Indians. But already, there would be much difference over how
to portray the Indians. Their role in the American narrative is redescribed
nowadays, which is signified by the use of the term "Native Americans".
Also, they are likely to tell another story than a WASP - yet they talk
about the same experiences.
Therefore, it seems to make sense to speak of particular ethnic narratives, as opposed to meta-narratives.
The meta-narrative
I would like to speak of the "official" narrative, the narrative that
is being told in average schoolbooks, the "dominant" narrative, as the
meta-narrative. The meta-narrative
provides for the relation and order of the terms Americans have come to
accept for their public discourse and self-understanding, and is, as any
narrative, maybe the most essential part of the prevalent order of affairs.
Indeed, Richard Rorty would say, narratives are more powerful than political
institutions - indeed, narratives change institituions. They are prior
to them. For example, when the narrative of slavery was rewritten - Americans
saw slavery with new eyes - slavery was eventually abolished.
Literature
and narratives
Literature, in the form of novels as the account of either individual
or collective narratives, has always played an integral part in the self-depiction,
self-ordering and self-understanding
of a person or of a nation, respectively:
And not only is literature a window to the national ideals (read: vocabulary), but also one great battleground for it. Marx may have first recognized the importance of the concept of 'alienation'. But what it really meant was more acutely conveyed in Franz Kafka's books. Richard Rorty likes to cite Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's cabin" as a work that has greatly changed American views on slavery. - The reflection on literature, then, is a matter of national identity, and is undertaken with great pain at American Universities.
Back to Main Page 1 on Narratives
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and Maus?"