The literary bias: narrative and the self

Abstract

Narratives are an interface that evolution has instilled in our brains for their optimal interaction with reality. Without them we would not be who we are: creatures that narrativize their experiences, integrate them into their autobiographical self, and imagine the future of this self. But narratives also distort reality by endowing it with meaning, purpose, and causality even when none exist. Literary stories with weak narrativity, such as those by Raymond Carver, remind us of another modality of the human mind and selfhood available to us, one that registers the world without subjecting it to narrative selection and chronological ordering. © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press. All rights reserved.