The storytelling animal : how stories make us human /
Gottschall, Jonathan, 1972-
The storytelling animal : how stories make us human / Jonathan Gottschall. - Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, c2012. - xvii, 248 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-230) and index.
The witchery of story
The riddle of fiction
Hell is story-friendly
Night story
The mind is a storyteller
The moral of the story
Ink people change the world
Life stories
The future of story
Undiscovered and unmapped country. It's easy to say that humans are "wired" for story, but why? In this book, the author offers a unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life's complex social problems, just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, he tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic? Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more "truthy" than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler's ambitions were partly fueled by a story. But as is shown in this book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral; they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. This book finally reveals how stories shape us.
9780544002340 (pbk.) 0544002342 (pbk.)
Storytelling.
Literature and science.
Literatura y ciencia
Psicología social
Identidad colectiva --Aspectos psicológicos
GR 72.3 / G687s 2012
808.5/43
The storytelling animal : how stories make us human / Jonathan Gottschall. - Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, c2012. - xvii, 248 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-230) and index.
The witchery of story
The riddle of fiction
Hell is story-friendly
Night story
The mind is a storyteller
The moral of the story
Ink people change the world
Life stories
The future of story
Undiscovered and unmapped country. It's easy to say that humans are "wired" for story, but why? In this book, the author offers a unified theory of storytelling. He argues that stories help us navigate life's complex social problems, just as flight simulators prepare pilots for difficult situations. Storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure our survival. Drawing on the latest research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, he tells us what it means to be a storytelling animal. Did you know that the more absorbed you are in a story, the more it changes your behavior? That all children act out the same kinds of stories, whether they grow up in a slum or a suburb? That people who read more fiction are more empathetic? Of course, our story instinct has a darker side. It makes us vulnerable to conspiracy theories, advertisements, and narratives about ourselves that are more "truthy" than true. National myths can also be terribly dangerous: Hitler's ambitions were partly fueled by a story. But as is shown in this book, stories can also change the world for the better. Most successful stories are moral; they teach us how to live, whether explicitly or implicitly, and bind us together around common values. We know we are master shapers of story. This book finally reveals how stories shape us.
9780544002340 (pbk.) 0544002342 (pbk.)
Storytelling.
Literature and science.
Literatura y ciencia
Psicología social
Identidad colectiva --Aspectos psicológicos
GR 72.3 / G687s 2012
808.5/43