Living through Stories

Abstract

Storytelling, Self, Society, 8:126-129, 2012 D KOUfi ri Copyright©Taylor &Francis Group, LLC | £ KOU D fi U0QÇJ0 ri ISSN: 1 550-5340 print /1 932-0280 online S' Tay,or &Francls GrouP DOI: 10.1080/15505340.2012.665314 BOOK REVIEWS Living through Stories JackZipes Frank, Arthur. Letting StoriesBreathe: A Socio-Narratology. Chicago:University ofChicago Press, 2010.$25. This is a splendidbook,and anyonewho takesstorytelling seriously shouldfindthetime to exploreArthur Frank'sheartfelt and sophisticated endeavors to forgea theory of socionarratology . Notonlyarehisnotions abouttheessential life-like nature ofstories original, but hisexplanations ofwhy weform andareinformed bystories arealsovibrant andconvincing. He begins theintroduction tohisbookthis way : Stories may not actually breathe, but they cananimate. Thebreath imputed bythis book's title isthe breath ofa godincreation stories, asthat godgives life tothe lump that will become human. Stories animate human life; that istheir work. Stories work with people, for people, andalways stories work onpeople, affecting what people areabletoseeas real, as possible, andas worth doing orbest avoided. What isitabout stories - what aretheir particularities - that enables them towork asthey do?More than mere curiosity isatstake inthis question, because human life depends onthe stories wetell: the sense ofself that those stories impart, the relationships constructed around shared stories, andthe sense ofpurpose that stories both propose andforeclose. (3) Frank, a sociologist, haswritten bookson storytelling, illness, andethicsandis committed to understanding whatmakesstories effective andwhywecannot do without them. Thisdoesnot meanthat all stories aregood.Manycanbedangerous andcausehavocandcalamity. However, becausethey shapethewaywelive,wehaveanethical responsibility toseekoutthose stories that benefit societies andprovide a meansfor understanding thetruths inourlives.Without a critical graspofstories, wecanbemisled bythem, andFrank develops a theory ofsocio-narratology to helpusmakedistinctions among thestories wetellandhear. Inhisintroduction Frank setssixvery different stories byEduardo Galeano,Sharon O'Brien, MaxineHongKingston, Leo Tolstoy, AllenFeldman, andFredrick Douglassasexempla towhich hewillreturn intheother chapters ofthebook.Theywillenableus tocomprehend howstories Address correspondence toJack Zipes, Retired, German Department, University ofMinnesota, 320Folwell Hall, 9Pleasant Street SE,Minneapolis, MN 55455. E-mail: zipes001@umn.edu BOOK REVIEW 127 embody capacities that weneedtoconsider inorder toarticulate anddiscussproblematic issues inourlives.Frank explains that hedoesnotwanttointerpret thesestories. Rather hewants to usethem toexplain theclaimsandoperating premises ofsocio-narratology. He is notinterested ininterpreting stories becausecritics tendtouseheuristics andmethodologies toforeclose the meanings ofstories. Frank wants toanalyze howthestories work byfocusing onhowthey arein dialogue with oneanother, with people'sexperiences andwith societies. Thesourcefor Frank's ideasondialogicnarratology is theRussiancritic MikhailBakhtin, whoelaborated principles ofdialogicphilosophy inhismany works.1 KeyforFrank is thenotion that all utterances are essentially dialogical becausethey depend oncommunication between simultaneous differences andon theinterplay ofmeanings. At thesametime,itis important to bearin mindthatall language usageisa product ofconflicting socialforces that giverisetoconstant reinterpretation. Giventhedialogicalnature oflanguageandhowwe use ittoform narratives that inform us, Frank's basicpremises are: 1. Stories donotbelong tostorytellers andstory listeners becauseallstories are"reassemblies offragments onloan"and"depend onshared narrative sources" (14). 2. Stories notonlycontribute tothemaking ofournarrative selvesbutthey also weavethe threads ofsocialrelationships andmakelifesocial. 3. Stories havecertain distinct capacities that enablethem todo what they dobestandcanbe understood as narrative types orgenres. 4. Though distinct, genres ofstories dependononeanother, forthere is nosuchthing as a pure genre, andalltaletypes havea symbiotic relationship tooneanother. 5. Socio-narratology encourages a dialogical modeofinterpretation so that all voicescanhe heard andopenupa story for various interpretations andpossible uses. 6. "Socio-narratology, although alwaysrelational in recognizing thatall parties act,pays most attention tostories acting. Itanalyzes howstories breathe as they animate, assemble, entertain, andenlighten, andalsodeceiveanddivide people"(16). 7. Analysis demands that we learnfrom storytellers. "Theprimary lessonfrom storytellers is thatthey learnto workwithstories thatarenottheirs butthere, as realities. Master storytellers knowthat stories breathe" (17). Frank divides hisbookintosixchapters, which include numerous references tothesixstories presented inhisintroduction andtoother relevant works. In chapter one,"TheCapacitiesof Stories," Frank makes animportant distinction between "chosen" and"unchosen" stories (a conceptdeveloped bytheFrench sociologist Pierre Bourdieu). Allpeopleareborn intofamilies and cultures without choice.Every person hasa habitus derived from thevalues,behavior, andcustomsofthefamily intowhichheorsheis born.Sincewe arebornintofamilies andsocieties notofourchoice,unchosen stories willinevitably form thetraditions ofeveryone's homeand society. Theymark us,butatthesametime wearealsocapableofchoosing stories andretelling them as wemature andgaincritical consciousness todealwith problems andconflicts. Thereis a widerange ofstories that wecanchoosethat offer usoptions, andFrank discusses capacities ofstories todealwith human troubles andtomaketrouble, todisplay andtest people'scharacter, tomakeoneparticular perspective notonlyplausible butalsocompelling, tomakelifedramatic andopen-ended, tocreate unpredictable behaviors, toprovide a meanstojudgewhat isgoodand bad,toreport truths that havebeenenacted elsewhere, andtoarousepeople'simaginations. 128 ziPES Inchapter two,"Stories atWork," Frank elaborates somenotions developed bytheGerman sociologist Norbert Eliasas wellasBourdieu. He asserts that "narrative makes this earth habitable forhuman beings"(46). Thatis,stories...