The appeal or disappeal of a narrative is based highly on the reception of the audience. The narrator must consider the role of “interest” [1] when transmitting their narrative. In Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation by Herman and Vervaeck appeal is defined by the audience's “interest thanks to the network in which they circulate and in which the reader takes part”[2]. They also note that on a simpler level, “Evaluative devices say to us: this was terrifying, dangerous, weird, wild, crazy; or amusing, hilarious, wonderful; more generally, that it was strange, uncommon, or unusual” [3]. In the most basic form, it all boils down to Gerald Prince's concept of making the audience interested in some thing they might not have gravitated to originally [4].To evaluate these ideas, the Bible will be utilized as an example of a key narrative.
Even with the enlightened, seemingly atheist, society of our generation, the Bible is still highly transmitted. Some try to distinguish its authority by pointing out historical and other factual gaps. As a child, growing up in an Modern Orthodox Jewish background, my class mates and I were forced to find a way to bridge tradition with modern society. We were taught to question the Bible as text but not be tempted with disbelief. At the time, I was rather rebellious against religion and continuously questioned specific portions that seemed fantastical. When backed into a corner with my incessant questioning, teachers would resort to answer with this final response: there is not a single extra word in the Bible. Every word was the word of G-d, who narrated stories to teach morality. Therefore the Bible should not be seen from a historical perspective because that was not of interest to G-d.
At that time the Bible was disappealing. All I could see was, “the unspoken agenda by which the tell ability of a series of events, the narrativity of this or that mode of representation, is assessed in certain contexts” [5]. The Bible seemed nothing more than religious indoctrination to view life from Judaism's agenda. However, as I have grown, the appeal of the Bible has generated value more based on culture and the evaluative devices employed [6] showing the mass and lasting appeal of a successful narrative.
[1]Prince, Gerald. The Disnarrated. Style. 22:1. 1988, p.1-8. Print.
[2]Herman, Luc, and Bart Vervaeck. Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation. 17. The Ohio State Universtiy, 2009, p.112. Print.
[3]Herman, Luc, and Vervaeck, Bart. Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation. 17. The Ohio State University, 2009, p.13. Print.
[4]Prince, Gerald. The Disnarrated. Style. 22:1. 1988, p.1-8. Print.
[5]Prince, Gerald. The Disnarrated. Style. 22:1. 1988, p.1-8. Print.
[6]Herman, Luc, and Vervaeck, Bart. Narrative Interest as Cultural Negotiation. 17. The Ohio State University, 2009, p.3. Print.
I like the way you connect the framework of appealing/disappealing narratives to bible and your experience. Regarding my background as having no particular religion, I assume your experience of dealing with narratives as a child must be very different from mine.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were interested in my blog contribution. I chose to use the bible as an example because I thought that even if someone had little experience with the text some of the stories are universal. I'm sorry if that is an incorrect assumption on my part but opposite from your perspective, I have never lived without religion. I tried for a while in high school but did not succeed. Either way, to comment on your last idea, I believe that even if you did come from a religious background, your experience would still vary from my own. People are unique individuals so how we understand our worlds is consequently unique. This is the reason I find it frustrating when people say originality is dead. If originality were dead wouldn't everyone be the same?
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