Research Area 2: Cultural Narratologies
Cultural Narratologies aims to study how narratives are employed in constructing the versions of the world to which we have access, and to analyze the system of values embedded within such conceptions of the world. This necessitates making sense of the narrative processes themselves and how they convey any set of values. Such an approach can help us interpret the plurality of stories that govern our understanding of the world. Being aware of the processes that are used to shape narratives can indeed become a powerful tool for cultural analysis, making us ask questions about the cultural, social, medial, and historical contexts of a given narrative, and the specific ends to which they are produced. Possibly, for example, we could read the image on this page as a narrative. In doing so, we must also ask who tells the story, with what means, and to what ends? What do the women, seated neatly in a row, tell us as they listen to this young man asking for their attention?
Narratives are contingent upon the cultures from which they emerge. This, in turn, lends them their colourful particularity in the form of idiosyncratic characters, topics, plots, and styles. Cultural Narratologies, consequently, means the study of those particularities, and of the practices and modes of story-telling, whether fictional or factual. Often fatefully, narratives can decide between war and peace, veneration and vilification, which values we hold dear and what futures we dread. This Research Area thus explores how stories are told: how they are created or erased, made famous or forgotten, bought or sold, broken or repaired, fashioned as truth or debunked as lies.
Active Members
- Stefano Rozzoni
- Edward Djordjevic
- Vira Sachenko
- Lukas Helbich
- Clara Verri
- Candace Goodrich
- Ruth Manstetten
- Richard Damian Vargas López
- Maaike Hommes
- Jaqueline Winkel
- Sijie Wang
- Robin Schmieder
- Tobias Schädel
- Edith Ruvalcaba Galindo
- Jennifer Kappe
- Juulia Jaulimo
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David E. Susa
- Juan Camilo Brigard
-
Herman Steve Peumadji Seukdeu
- Zahra Vodjgani
- Dr. Imke Polland-Schmandt
Contact
If you are interested in joining us, please get in touch with our speakers and sign up for our newsletter and reminder e-mails:
- Meike Wiegand (Meike.Wiegand)
- Robin Schmieder (Robin.Schmieder@gcsc.uni-giessen.de)