narrative paradigm

This is my last entry for the week, continuing my discussion of key points you should know from the chapters for this week's quiz. Today I'll focus on Chapter 23, the Narrative Paradigm of Walter Fisher.

What's not to like about Chapter 23? Human love to tell stories and that's what this approach is all about. Based on Fisher's assumption that people are narrative beings appeals to reason are fundamentally stories. Fisher argues that a paradigm is a conceptual framework. The rational-world paradigm assumes that people make decisions on the basis of argument. In contrast, Fisher's narrative paradigm assumes that history, biography, culture, and character determine what we consider good reasons. Fisher argues that all stories must have coherence and fidelity. Be sure you know what these terms mean.

According to Fisher, the ideal audience is guided by humane values in determining good reasons. Griffin argues that Fisher's narrative paradigm is strongly democratic. One critic of Fisher's narrative paradigm argues that is cannot explain the persuasive power of evil stories. I found this criticism particularly interesting, because in a sense, you could consider Fisher's narrative paradigm naive. Critical theorists such as Stan Deetz certainly do, arguing that stories often reinforce the status quo in subtle ways that make them difficult to resist. So while Fisher's work is appealing and does underscore our fundamental nature as storytellers, he ignores issues of power often implicit in stories.

Let me know if this week's blog entries help you out on the quiz.

~ Professor Cyborg