Showing papers on "Narrative structure published in 2003"

Narrative Impact : Social and Cognitive Foundations

Abstract: Contents: M.K. Johnson, Foreword. Preface. T.C. Brock, J.J. Strange, M.C. Green, Power Beyond Reckoning: An Introduction to Narrative Impact. Part I:The Experience of Stories. V. Nell, Mythic Structures in Narrative: The Domestication of Immortality. K. Oatley, Emotion and the Story Worlds of Fiction. J.W. Polichak, R.J. Gerrig, "Get Up and Win!": Participatory Responses to Narrative. F. Biocca, The Evolution of Interactive Media: Toward "Being There" In Nonlinear Narrative Worlds. Part II:Real-World Impact of Narratives. J. DelFattore, Controversial Narratives in the Schools: Content, Values, and Conflicting Viewpoints. M.D. Slater, Entertainment Education and the Persuasive Impact of Narratives. J. Radway, Girls, Reading, and Narrative Gleaning: Crafting Repertoires for Self-Fashioning Within Everyday Life. R.N. Jacobs, The Narrative Integration of Personal and Collective Identity in Social Movements. Part III:Theoretical Perspectives. A.C. Graesser, B. Olde, B. Klettke, How Does the Mind Construct and Represent Stories? J.J. Strange, How Fictional Tales Wag Real-World Beliefs: Models and Mechanisms of Narrative Influence. R.C. Schank, T.R. Berman, The Pervasive Role of Stories in Knowledge and Action. M.C. Green, T.C. Brock, In the Mind's Eye: Transportation-Imagery Model of Narrative Persuasion. T.C. Brock, M.C. Green, J.J. Strange, Insights and Research Implications: Epilogue to Narrative Impact.

Managing interaction between users and agents in a multi-agent storytelling environment

Abstract: This paper describes an approach for managing the interaction of human users with computer-controlled agents in an interactive narrative-oriented virtual environment. In these kinds of systems, the freedom of the user to perform whatever action she desires must be balanced with the preservation of the storyline used to control the system's characters. We describe a technique, narrative mediation, that exploits a plan-based model of narrative structure to manage and respond to users' actions inside a virtual world. We define two general classes of response to situations where users execute actions that interfere with story structure: accommodation and intervention. Finally, we specify an architecture that uses these definitions to monitor and automatically characterize user actions, and to compute and implement responses to unanticipated activity. The approach effectively integrates user action and system response into the unfolding narrative, providing for the balance between a user's sense of control within the story world and the user's sense of coherence of the overall narrative.

Towards a narrative theory of virtual reality

Abstract: Virtual Reality (VR), by its nature and characteristics, is of specific interest to the AI community, particularly in the domains of Storytelling and Intelligent Characters. We argue that VR must be considered a particular narrative medium alongside Theatre, Literature or Cinema. This paper reviews relevant work in narrative theory from Plato onwards, including the work and theories of literary critics [1], cinema critics [2–4] and theatrical dramaturges [5], and analyses the specific characteristics of VR relevant to this theory. Less studied media such as Live Role Playing Games, improvisational drama and participatory drama are also considered. Finally, this document argues for a participatoryprocess-oriented narrative, with particular attention to the specificities and particularities of stories and their possible representation, adapted to the narrative medium Virtual Reality.

Crossing borders: Time, space, and disorientation in narrative

Abstract: In this article I examine the construction of time and space as orientation elements in narratives that recount disorienting experiences. I focus on how narrators articulate orientation and on how listeners engage in interactional work to make sense of narrated events. I argue that orientation management in storytelling illustrates how the use of linguistic resources connects narrators and interlocutors to micro and macro social contexts. I also suggest that consideration of the role played by orientation in different types of narratives has two important methodological consequences: it leads analysts to look critically at received notions about narrative structure, and it opens new paths for the analysis of the multiple links between narratives and social contexts. The phenomena analyzed include vagueness in the provision of orientation details, interactional negotiations over orientation, predominance of space over time orientation in certain narratives or narrative sections, and use of shared conventions for narrating the border crossing experience. The data for the article come from 13 chronicles of the border crossing told during sociolinguistic interviews by undocumented Mexican immigrants to the United States. (Narrative, Immigrants, Orientation, Time, Space, Storytelling)

Solving the Narrative Paradox in VEs – Lessons from RPGs

Abstract: Narrative within Virtual Environments (VEs) is a compromise between pre-authored narrative structures and user freedom in terms of interaction and physical movement. We present results of a recent investigation on the narrative structures and mechanisms of Role Playing Games (RPGs), and assess the potential of non-conventional narrative forms for computer implementation. We address the potential benefits for the research currently undertaken by the AI community in terms of storytelling and interactive storytelling.

Extracting information about emotions in films

Abstract: We present a method being developed to extract information about characters' emotions in films. It is suggested that this information can help describe higher levels of multimedia semantics relating to narrative structures. Our method extracts information from audio description that is provided for the visually-impaired with an increasing number of films. The method is based on a cognitive theory of emotions that links a character's emotional states to the events in their environment. In this paper the method is described along with some preliminary evaluation and discussions about the kinds of novel video retrieval and browsing applications it may support.

Narrative archetypes: A critique, theory, and method of narrative analysis

Abstract: The application of narrative theory to music has been an important aspect of theoretical research in the last twenty years or so, with significant articles, books, and conference papers appearing on the topic by Edward T. Cone, Anthony Newcomb, Fred Maus, Robert Hatten, Eero Tarasti, Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Carolyn Abbate, and numerous others.1 However, after a period of intense interest in musical narrative between about 1987 and 1994, the topic has moved somewhat out of the spotlight, leaving the impression that enough may have been said on the matter. I believe that there are three significant reasons for this:

Latinas' Narratives of Domestic Abuse: Discrepant versions of violence

Abstract: 1. List of figures and tables 2. Acknowledgments 3. 1. Narrating violence in institutional settings 4. 2. Telling the truth about violence: Language ideology and the function of narrative structure 5. 3. Representation, ownership and genre: Language ideologies of narrative production and performance 6. 4. Telling and re-telling: Latina narrators interacting with institutions 7. 5. The protective order interview: A linguistic tug-of-war for representation 8. 6. Disappearing acts: Power, control, opposition and omission 9. 7. Disfigurement and discrepancy: Taking the story out of the report 10. 8. Transforming domestic violence into narrative syntax 11. 9. Beyond the storytelling taboo: Latinas' narratives and sexual violence 12. 10. Discrepant versions and the margins: Truth or consequence for Latina battered women? 13. References 14. Appendix. Glossary of legal terms 15. Author index 16. Subject index

We Knew That’s It: Retelling the Turning Point of a Narrative:

Abstract: A paradigmatic means of conveying a turningpoint in a narrativeof danger is the line ‘we knew that’s it’ (Labov, 1972). In four tellings of a single narrative about danger during the Holocaust, anarrator varies this line in ways that maintain its collective focus on knowledge, but alter what is ‘known’. An analysis of changes in the ‘we knew [x]’ line reveals its relationship with the changingstructure of the narrative and with the shift toward multi-vocalic means ofexternal evaluation. Also suggested is the relationship of the overall narrative changes to the changing place of Holocaust discourse, narrative and oral history in memory culture, and the larger discourse of resistance and survival.

The Diverse Worlds of Computer Games: A Content Analysis of Spaces, Populations, Styles and Narratives.

Abstract: The Diverse Worlds Project analysed 130 computer and video games (CVGs) to understand their textual landscape. Titles were sampled from the five gaming platforms dominant in 2002. Blending the quantitative content analytic tradition and the Bordwellian approach to formal film analysis, characters, settings, narrative and stylistic factors were studied in four units of analysis including box, handbook, opening cinematic sequences, and game-play. “Diverse Worlds” contradicts the popular stereotypes about CVGs presenting exaggerated, violent characters in simplistic, formulaic, worlds lacking in aesthetic nuance and texture. Games are painted using a vast array of visible features and locations. Narrative structure and progression varies depending on genre and goes beyond “shoot the bad guy.” Graphic stylisation tends toward a mid-point between animation and photo-realism with the latter more often used for rendering environments and the former for characters. Limitations of character representation include the use of stereotypes found in traditional mainstream media. An earlier version of this work was presented at the International Ratings Conference in Sydney, Australia, September 2003.

Narrative plausibility: the impact of sequence and anchoring

Abstract: The perceived plausibility of suspect narratives is hypothesised to be a product of more than logical evaluation. Aspects of the narrative’s internal structure, notably the extent to which it follows a canonical sequence, may influence judged plausibility. It may also be sensitive to external ‘anchors’ that activate relevant schema. To test these possibilities two suspect testimonies were created: one involving a possible homicide and the other a possible burglary. A second version of each of these statements was created in which the narrative clauses occurred in a different order to the canonical sequence elaborated by Stein and Glenn (1979). A further version of each of these four statements was also created to contain ‘criminal anchors’, of the form discussed by Wagenaar, van Koppen and Crombag (1993), i.e.: statements that reflected commonly held beliefs about criminality. In the first study ten subjects each separately rated each of the eight narratives using a perceived plausibility scale developed from pilot work. ANOVA revealed that the addition of criminal anchors led to a significant decrease in perceived plausibility, but the effect of narrative sequencing was dependant on scenario (homicide or burglary). Ambiguities within Stein and Glenn’s model of narrative structure were identified, and new testimonies created. A second study with these new narratives (N=60) found support for the effect of narratives sequence as well as replicating the influence of criminal anchors. The implications for models of how people judge plausibility are discussed, as are the practical implications for legal contexts.

The rhetoric of Hindu nationalism: A narrative of mythic redefinition

Abstract: Like nationalist parties across the globe, Hindu nationalist parties have taken strong positions on issues relating to national identity In this essay, we argue that Hindu nationalist rhetoric possesses a mythic narrative structure, which is tied to the broad rhetorical situation facing any nationalist movement that is outside the mainstream power structure in a society We further argue that there are a limited number of narrative patterns that are often called for by a restricted set of rhetorical situations We also propose a relationship between narrative and generic theory, suggesting a means of expanding the applicability of generic criticism

Pynchon, postmodernism and quantification: an empirical content analysis of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow:

Abstract: Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) has been received as a canonical instance of postmodernism. The novel appears to subvert traditional definitions of plot and characterization, yet the narrative retains a nagging sense of order underneath the represented chaos. Simultaneously evoking and undoing patterns on all levels of its narrative structure, Gravity’s Rainbow surreptitiously evokes the presence of a night journey (Martindale, 1979). An empirical content analysis of the novel confirms this ambiguous attitude with respect to patterning in the novel, and thus constitutes a first and modest step towards the quantification of postmodernism. First, a thematic analysis, calculating the co-variations of words across the chapters, corroborates the idea of a connectedness that seems to belie, in part, the pervasive presence of a paranoid hermeneutic. Second, a dictionary-based analysis of narrative sequences reveals an inverse night journey pattern that differs markedly from other patterns found for mod...

Mother-Writing and the Narrative of Maternal Subjectivity

Abstract: This essay discusses how writing from a maternal perspective can construct maternal subjectivity in a linguistic form. Maternal subjectivity is understood as the aggregate of subject positions, or “representations,” experienced by a woman who is a mother. Writing can form connections between subject positions, including those which have been split off or denied because of culturally induced ambivalence, to establish a subjectivity that is multiple rather than split. Through a reading of Mary Gordon's novel, Men and Angels, I show how the text's narrative structure, as it represents a mother's discourse with her own mother, her discourse with herself, and her discourse with her child, incarnates the plurality of self positions that mothers possess and constructs a relationship or “grammar” between them. By evoking this complex maternal subjectivity, mother-writing can be understood as a gesture toward recognition–both within the text, for its characters, and outside the text, for the mother/writer.

Counter-story, resistance and reconciliation in online narratives of women in recovery from problem gambling

Abstract: Based on discourse analysis of website postings to an online gender-specific support group over a 30-month period, this study examines the context and narrative forms through which women tell the stories of their experience of problem gambling and recovery. In response to the hegemony of men-dominated groups and dominant ideologies, women seeking support for their recovery create both online and offline symbolic communities for gendered expression of experience. The oral tradition of Gamblers Anonymous is referenced and reflected in the website postings, providing a coherent narrative structure that is valued in western culture. The online forum references a pragmatic approach that places women's solutions in the public domain, rendering these experiences visible, significant and transformative. A hypothetical model is proposed in which creation of symbolic community and learning to tell a coherent narrative mediate progress from chaos to social and moral reconciliation.

When Narrative Fails

Abstract: Lloyd Wells' four examples of loss of self challenge both philosophers and clinicians to ponder just what it is that has been lost in such cases If a self has been lost, who lost it? And how can personal identity be so insecure that it can be lost in so many different ways? Empiricist thinkers, both Western and Eastern, have questioned the very existence of a self; much recent thought about the nature of the self has converged on notions that it is not a substantial reality, but a narrative, the product of the stories that we tell ourselves about our lives so that we can knit together our experiences into a continuous plot Owen Flanagan and Valerie Hardcastle have already brought one version of this theory to bear on one of Wells' cases and James Phillips explores the capacity of narrative theory to account for each of these cases in an accompanying essay In this essay, I challenge the adequacy of narrative theories of the self in general and their application to these particular cases The details of Wells' cases highlight the limitations of narrative theories to discursive, secondary process thought by directing attention to the richer and more expressively forceful resources of metaphor and nondiscursive forms of symbolism Narrative unity or continuity is no guarantee against experiences of the loss of self The monological character of narrative masks the sociality of the self, the ways in which each individual self is constituted and threatened by interactions with other selves I argue for the power of drama, opera, music, dance, and spatial forms of symbolism to cope with the diversity of what Flanagan has dubbed the multiplex self, (Flanagan 1994) especially when narrative fails Language and narrative certainly play a crucial role in human self-consciousness But human imagination and art command other resources as well and a theory that acknowledges their contributions can accept and incorporate the insights of narrative theories without confining itself to the limitations of story telling

The theme(s) of the Joseph story: a literary analysis

Abstract: Since the 1970s the application of narrative analysis to the Joseph Story has enriched its reading. But those who apply this method to the narrative produce significantly different results in terms of what its theme is. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the reasons for this and to articulate as objectively as possible the theme of the Joseph Story. Chapter One establishes the context of this investigation by evaluating the major narrative readings of the Joseph Story. It reveals that those who apply narrative methodologies to the story come to different conclusions about what its theme is. It notes that the different results could be due to different narrative approaches, the literary context of the narrative, and the complex nature of the text itself. We choose Humphreys, Longacre, and Turner as our dialogue partners because they represent different narrative methods of reading the Joseph Story. The reference terms `narrative criticism' and `theme' are then defined. Chapter Two argues that the way to overcome the confusion concerning the theme (s) of the Joseph Story is to use a methodology that addresses the limitations of the literary approaches applied to the narrative and takes note of the wider literary context of Genesis and the rich nature of the text. This chapter then proposes a narrative methodology of `triangulation' that comprises plot analysis, text-linguistics and poetics. Chapters three, four and five apply this methodology to the entire narrative in Genesis 37-50 via a detailed analysis of Genesis 37,44-45, and 49-50, the beginning, middle and end of the narrative, respectively. The motifs that emerge from our analysis are family breakdown, power, providence, blessing, and land. Chapter six concludes that each of these motifs is a key concern of the Joseph Story but none by itself adequately articulates the story's theme. It is the ecology of these motifs that enunciates the theme: God's providential work with and through Jacob's dysfunctional family, preserving it and blessing others.

Discourse structure and rhetoric of English narratives: Differences between native English and Chinese non-native English writers

Abstract: This contrastive study examines discourse structure and rhetoric of English narratives written by undergraduate students who are native English writers (EWs) and Chinese non-native English writers (CWs). Findings suggest that EWs and CWs adopt a similar global structure of narrative. However, EWs and CWs show striking differences in rhetorical options. They differ in foci and approaches for presenting informative, narrative and evaluative elements in their narratives. With regard to informative elements, EWs adopt a more specific and elaborate approach in character identification, but CWs tend to use non-specific references and are restricted in giving information. In terms of narrative elements, EWs focus more on actions of the characters, while CWs emphasize overt temporal sequence. Direct statements are more frequently used by EWs than CWs. Regarding evaluative elements, most of EW texts are implicitly presented, while CWs prefer giving a moral statement explicitly by the narrator or by a third person who is often a senior. This article argues that these remarkable differences between EW native and CW non-native English writing may be closely related to the differences in the cultural backgrounds, perceptions of narrative structure and narrative rhetoric between English and Chinese.

Art and Identity: Expanding Narrative Theory

Abstract: Early works that advanced a narrative understanding of the self, such as Alastair MacIntyre's After Virtue, came as a refreshing change from more standard discussions of the metaphysics of identity. The speed at which this conception was embraced is testament to its intuitive power; by now the narrative model of the self holds an almost hegemonic position in theories of identity and it has become a commonplace to talk of the self as a narrative construct. But the popularity of this model has also meant that it has undergone very little critical review since its early development. I wish here to raise some questions about the aptness of this model for capturing the complexity of the self and, by highlighting some of its limitations, to suggest possible avenues for broadening the narrative conception into a fuller and more nuanced account of identity. To suggest that the self is a narrative, or the product of a narrative, is implicitly to say that the self is a work of art. It is an artwork of a particular type-a literary work-that is created by the practice of telling stories. Unlike theories that posit the self as a substance on the model of the metaphysics of things, this position has at its heart an aesthetic view of the self as the product of a creative and imaginative practice of a very specific kind. And while there is great theoretical potential in the investigation of the subject along these lines, such an exploration will have to broaden its scope to consider more than literary art forms as the basis for self-identity. While the self may be formed in part by the telling of stories, I will argue that it is also formed by much more and has facets that cannot be captured by a strict understanding of narrative. At present, the narrative model is the only aesthetic conception of the self available and this conception does not, for the most part, admit or explore its aesthetic roots. The Narrative Self Marya Schechtman, in her recent work The Constitution of Selves, writes: The cornerstone of the narrative self-constitution view is the claim that a person's identity is created by a self-conception that is narrative in form. More broadly put, this means that constituting an identity requires tthat an individual conceive of his life as having the form and logic of a story-more specifically, the story of a person's life-where "story" is understood as a conventional, linear narrative.1 This view-or ones very similar to it-is prevalent in both psychological and philosophical circles, having been advanced by Donald Spence, Roy Schafer, Donald Polkinghorne, and Jerome Bruner in psychology, and by (among others) Paul Ricoeur, Alistair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor in philosophy.2 I will take Schechtman's statement as paradigmatic of narrative theory,3 pointing to specific departures from it as they become relevant. The narrative theory of the self has much in common with hermeneutic or interpretationalist accounts of identity, such as Charles Taylor's, which hold that the self is (at least in part) constructed through our interactions with others and with the cultural horizon in which we live. It is by our interpretive and imaginative reconstructions, these accounts suggest, that we make sense of the world and our lives-and thereby gain a sense of identity. Paul Ricoeur adopts this basic hermeneutic stance, and cautions that "there is no self-knowledge without some kind of detour through signs, symbols and cultural works."4 And Joseph Margolis makes a stronger aesthetic claim when he notes that the "complexities" of the art world "are the inseparable mates of what is required in understanding ourselves as selves";5 the key to grasping the human subject for Margolis will be the same for understanding both the cultural horizon and the art that condition it. But it is the kind of detour we make through our cultural horizons that provides the specific mark of narrative theory. For Ricoeur, self-interpretation finds in narrative "a privileged mediation";6 "it is in telling our own stories that we give ourselves an identity. …

The Professionalization of the Woman Artist in Anne Brontëë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Abstract: Critics of Anne Brontee9s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) have frequently noted the artistic endeavors of the novel9s heroine, Helen Graham, yet they have not fully considered the historical and narratological ramifications of Helen9s career as a painter. This essay argues that Helen9s artworks cannot be considered as mere background to the novel or as simply symbolic reflections of the heroine9s (or the author9s) emotions. Instead, we must see the scenes of painting in Tenant as indicators of the novel9s radical view of women9s role as creative producers during a particularly complex moment in art history, one in which early-nineteenth-century female amateurism began its gradual transition from amateur "accomplished" woman to the professional female artist——a historical transition that, as is suggested in readings of various nineteenth-century novels, is in its earliest stages at precisely the moment of the writing and publication of Tenant . At the narrative level, the novel9s many scenes of painting provide its readers with detailed, if oblique, guidelines for interpretation; the novel is formally and ideologically impacted by the presence of its painter-heroine. Most particularly, such a reevaluation of the role of painting in the novel resolves a central critical debate over the novel9s problematic narrative structure.

n Teoretiese inleiding tot narratiewe hermeneutiek in die teologie

Abstract: A theoretical introduction to narrative hermeneutics in theology The premise of this article is that narrative hermeneutics as a method of research in theology departs from a dialectical relationship between hermeneutics and the method of interpretation. The article aims to describe and explain narrative as a “way of knowing”. It focuses on the form, content, function and context of myth. Myth is foundational to the lifestories of people and groups. The discussion on narrative theory applies Paul Ricoeur’s concept of the “hermeneutical arch” in narrative hermeneutics. The article concludes with the idea that narrative as a way of knowing is ideological critical and deconstructs dominant socio-cultural narratives. The story of Jesus of Nazareth as the foundational myth of the Christian faith community can function as a contra narrative in order to give meaning to people’s lives in the presence of God in a postmodern world.

Cracked vases and untidy seams: Narrative structure and closure in the truth and reconciliation commission and South African Fiction

Abstract: The TRC reveals a tension between a desire to open up the story of the past and to “close the chapter on our past”. I explore this tension by considering both the TRC’s relation to closure and those of selected fictional narratives that explicitly respond to the TRC. I argue that the tidy closure of reconciliation both excludes the traumatic traces of “deep memory” and fails to account for the presence of the past in the present. Focusing on formal structure and endings, I consider how metaphors of narrative such as Walcott’s “cracked vase” and textile images of quilting, tapestry and weaving suggest ways of writing the past that defer closure and complacency in favour of process and creative reworking.

Leading Lives: On Happiness and Narrative Meaning

Abstract: In contemporary moral philosophy, the standard way of understanding the constituents of the human good is in terms of a fairly limited number of features that contribute to our happiness independently of how they are situated in our lives. Even when this approach is supplemented by Moorean ideas about organic wholes, it still cannot do justice to the deep importance of how things are situated and even when meaning is seen as an important factor, it still tends to be treated as simply another item on the list of constituents. It is argued here that we should abandon this approach in favor of one that recognizes that our lives are best understood in terms of their narrative structure and that treats narrative meaning as a pervasive phenomenon that strongly influences the importance that different features have in making our lives go more or less well.

Difference, Visual Narration, and "Point of View" in My Name is Red

Abstract: This paper focuses on the difference between Eastern and Western ways of visual narration, taking as its frame of reference the novel My Name is Red, by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, announced on May 19, 2003 at Dublin Castle.1 This book is particularly important in terms of visual narration because it highlights the critical concept of "point of view" (POV). In his now internationally renowned novel, Pamuk's anachronistically created characters confront each other on ways of seeing and visual narration in the context of sixteenth-century Istanbul, when it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The visual narratives of miniature painting are elaborated in comparison with the contemporary Renaissance art, unfolding the differences in the depiction of faces, in particular. Style in visual narration is treated in the novel as a reflection of seeing and imaging the faces in their uniqueness and is contrasted with the tradition of Islamic book illumination where all faces appear to be the same. Western concerns with individuality and the uniqueness of the POV as revealed in one-point-perspective, suggests it is an indispensable aspect of style. In that sense, My Name is Red highlights portraiture in the visual arts as a reflection of character in visual narration; reflecting both the subject and the artist whose individuality is represented in the style of painting. Pamuk's novel, constructed as a symphony of many different voices, is well-suited in its form to its subject matter since it elaborates the concept of POV in fictional narrative structure. Through his characters, Pamuk's readers enter a world where Renaissance perspectivism a dominance of vision confronts the ultimate vision of blindness, presented in the novel as the self-imposed fate of the miniaturists at the peak of their careers. The worry about point of view is thus contrasted with its opposite the absence of vision as supreme achievement within the Islamic-Turkic tradition.

The power of stories (I): a discussion of why stories are powerful

Abstract: In this paper, the authors discuss the compelling power of stories and storytelling. After reviewing some of the most important literature about storytelling, they focus on four principal reasons for the power of story. First, stories are universal, crossing boundaries of language, culture and age. Second, they mirror human thought. All evidence from neurology and psychology leads to the conclusion that humans think in narrative structures. Concepts conveyed in story form more than ideas explained with logic and analysis imprint themselves naturally into human minds. Third, stories define who we are. Our sense of identity is forged by the stories we tell ourselves, the ones we come to believe and those we choose to dismiss. Fourth, stories build and preserve a group's sense of community. Stories align and motivate by portraying the world in vivid terms that build emotional connections among constituents, giving them a sense of shared purpose.

Apply Yourself: Learning While Reading the Tale of Melibee

Abstract: The long Tale of Melibee2 is short on plot, its ratio of saws to story explain ing both the neglect and the misinterpretation from which it suffers. Derek Pearsall has called the tale's plot a "peg on which to hang a vast quantity of moral discourse on a variety of matters," and he is one of many who find the Melibee a tale lacking a significant narrative dimension.3 For other readers, however, this peg wobbles considerably. These critics hold that the tale's arrangement of events guides the reader on the interpre tative path, but they trace the passage through the characters' absurd and disappointing actions as a sapper's tunnel undermining Melibee's progress in wisdom, Prudence's authority, and, hence, the tale's own claim to teach. I argue here, however, that a closer look at the Melibee's narra tive structure will demonstrate its strong and positive contribution to the tale's meaning, and will, in addition, clarify the roles Prudence and Melibee play in creating that meaning. Reaching beyond the particulars of Melibee's feud (its ostensible subject) the deliberative Melibee teaches deliberation: it lays before its reader a model of good decision-making that emphasizes the importance of proper speech to making proper deci sions. What is more, its narrative structure also develops in the reader skills essential to following this model. In particular, the tale inculcates a sensitivity to the shape of its own narrative contexts that develops an abil ity to see particular circumstances in light of larger patterns: in short, it trains its reader in the art of application.4 The tale thus completes its meaning in an effect it has on its reader, an effect produced by a narra tive structure whose patterns continually shape and reshape the reader's experience of the tale. Because the true complexity of the Melibee's nar rative structure has not been fully appreciated, the dependence of the tale's meaning on that structure has not been properly understood.