Storylife
On Epic, Narrative, and Living Things
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Yale University Press
Publishing:18th Feb '25
£20.00
This title is due to be published on 18th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
From Homer’s epics to mainstream news, stories have lives of their own—and humans may not always control the narratives we create
Combining ancient epic and myth with analogies from biology and the natural world, Joel P. Christensen explores the creative process and how narratives develop. This bold work urges readers to treat narratives as living things with their own agency in the world. Christensen starts by using Homeric epic to explore the way language and meaning develop alongside audiences in complex ecosystems and then moves through storytelling in the ancient Mediterranean over a thousand years. In this study, which ranges from the evolution of narratives to viral ideas, and to the dangerous side of stories in mass shootings and war, we see how narratives function as independent entities with consequences that cause lasting harm.
Connecting his argument to the present day, Christensen addresses contemporary cultural panics, including AI and ChatGPT, “post-truth” or alt-facts in the digital age, and free speech and cancel culture. Storylife invites readers to rethink human creativity, the importance of collective actions, and the lives we build together with and against narrative. In an age rife with misinformation, it is time to reconsider how much control we have over stories and how to educate ourselves once we acknowledge the power that narrative exerts over us.
“Written with great learning and elegance, this stunningly original book changes not only how we think about Greek epic but how stories make and break us in the present as well as the past.”—Candida Moss, author of God’s Ghostwriters
“Weaving effortlessly between the biological sciences and literary criticism, Storylife trains its sights on the many-sided potencies of narrative. Faithful to the lessons of the Homeric epics, Storylife cautions us to be wary of narrative’s Siren-like capacity to bewitch. A stirring account of storytelling’s dynamism and allure.”—Dan-el Padilla Peralta, author of Classicism and Other Phobias
“Storylife asks compelling questions about stories and how they change. Written with a touching humanity, it focuses on Homer but reflects on a broad range of topics, from cognitive science to ChatGPT, from education to Covid-19.”—Helen Morales, author of Antigone Rising
“A fascinating exploration of the role of story in how we conceive our selves and construe our worlds.”—Mark Turner, author of The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and Language
“Storylife is a beautifully written, wide-ranging book about narratives. It’s not often you encounter Homer under the same cover as DNA and neuroscience. But Joel Christensen makes it work. I highly recommend Storylife.”—Joseph LeDoux, author of The Deep History of Ourselves and The Four Realms of Existence
ISBN: 9780300269239
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
248 pages