The Narrative’s Creative and Ethical Mediation: A Refigured Self, a Refigured World

Abstract

In the age-old divide between philosophy and the arts, one can situate most compellingly Paul Ricoeur's take on the narrative which best highlights the creative or even cathartic dimension of art, particularly literature, in the configuration of the self. He argues that a work of art is not a simple imitation, rather, it is always and already a creative imitation---a new take, a different rendering, a refiguration of reality that discloses multi-layered truths, referring to a world and projecting other possible worlds. Ricoeur follows Aristotle in this view on mimesis but he goes on to develop it into a triad of mimetic activity wherein one could draw an aesthetic and ethical import, as it treats a work of art as one that speaks of realities that are not immediately given nor could simply be encapsulated and reduced to logical and scientific descriptions. Ricoeur here is not simply making an apology of the arts, instead he is presenting the mediating role of the narrative in understanding human action and its meaning and ultimately, oneself, within the horizon of temporal existence. This paper is a reflection of Ricoeur's portrayal of the narrative which echoes the reality that it is in the stories told and heard, written and read, lived and narrated wherein anyone can see that after all, the mystery of life and the joyful struggle for living is shared by everyone else. Through narration, imaginative and ethical variations, different worlds and ways of living are opened up. In recounting one's life, one is able to form and share an understanding of oneself and one's world, that is not substantial but rather dynamic, ever available to transform and be transformed.