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Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework

  • Chapter
The Science of Stories

Abstract

You will stir up little controversy by asserting that human beings are storytelling animals. We all have at least a rough accounting of what a story is. Stories progress from beginnings, through middles, and have endings. They are composed of characters. There is a plot situating the story and characters in time and space, where events interact with the actions of the characters and the world around them to make the story worthy of telling in the first place. We have all told stories. We have all listened to stories. Indeed, even our thoughts and emotions seem bound by the structure of story. It is not surprising then that whole academic disciplines have been devoted to the study of story and that whole careers have been largely dedicated to a single story or a single storyteller such as William Shakespeare or Mark Twain. We are thus, in a sense, homo narrans, and there is something about story—or narrative—that feels uniquely human. Consider this: pause for a moment and try to imagine communication without story….

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Authors
  1. Michael D. Jones
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  2. Mark K. McBeth
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  3. Elizabeth A. Shanahan
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Michael D. Jones Elizabeth A. Shanahan Mark K. McBeth

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© 2014 Michael D. Jones, Elizabeth A. Shanahan, and Mark K. McBeth

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Jones, M.D., McBeth, M.K., Shanahan, E.A. (2014). Introducing the Narrative Policy Framework. In: Jones, M.D., Shanahan, E.A., McBeth, M.K. (eds) The Science of Stories. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485861_1

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