Product Description

Richard Kearney shows how stories are deep at work in all forms of writing. He examines the power of the story and its ability to affect both individual and national identity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214656 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

From the Back Cover
Drawing on the work of James Joyce, the story of Sigmund Freud's 'Dora' and the case of Oscar Schindler, Richard Kearney skilfully illuminates how stories are deep at work in fictional writing, autobiography and psychoanalysis and above all, in attempts to talk of the "self". He also considers the stories of nations and how these may affect the way a national identity can emerge from stories. He looks at the stories of Romulus and Remus in the founding of Rome, the hidden agenda of stories in the antagonism between Britain and Ireland and how stories of alienation in film such as Aliens and Men in Black reveal often disturbing narratives at work in projections of North American national identity. Throughout On Stories stresses that far from heralding the demise of the story, the digital and supposedly 'postmodern' era opens up powerful new ways of thinking about narrative. Imaginative and wide-ranging, On Stories is essential reading for anyone who wants to think clearly about the role of stories in our future.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating Inter-disciplinary Journey
This philosophic take on stories covers the history and contemporary necessity of stories - aswell as outlining the boundries of storytelling.
The book examines the relationship between narrative and other fields of study: with verifyable history (Part Two); with Identity and culture (Part Three; all with a psychological slant. The inter-disciplinary approach provides perspectives and nuggets of fascinating fact that one would normally remain ignorant of. (To mention just some topics touched upon would include Freud, the Holocaust, ancient Greek Irish British and American narritive origins, theatre, film, ect)
Kearney concludes by showing how Aristotle's poetics is still relevant.

Definatly would have been a five-star book if fully referenced with a bibliography; it is, on the otherhand, totally accessable to the non-academic reader. Typically Irish terminology, phrases and rhetoric may also frustrate some readers.

An interesting idea, uninterestingly written
This fascinating topic for a book suffers rather, in my view, from being written by a philosopher rather than a literary critic. Slightly turgid and jargon-reliant, it becomes a struggle, at times, to follow Kearney's argument (and also, sadly, to care that you're not). Also the author's (or perhaps his editor's) periodic inability to construct correct sentences is irritating*, and undermines his authority. I was really excited when I bought this book, but quickly became disappointed and 'turned off' as I read it. A real shame.

*Where's the verb, dammit?!