Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2001

Publication Title

CEA Critic

First Page

1

Last Page

25

Additional Publication URL

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cea_critic/

Abstract

Few human activities investigate the poverty or richness of human life or describe the mechanisms of ethical formation as fully and particularly as narratives do. In the development of our intellectual views and ethical stances, we cannot do without the guidance and examples of first-hand friends, acquaintances, and loved ones, but neither can we do without the second-hand guidance and examples of narrative friends and loved ones, for these latter supplement our need for sociability and help us fill out the education about the ways and means of being human that we receive from first-hand acquaintances. It would be wise of all of us who spend our lives construing theories about language and literature to remind ourselves daily at least-about the roots of our deep and inextinguishable need for narrative.

Rights

Copyright ©; 2001 The Johns Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in CEA Critic, Volume 63, Issue 2, pages [1-25].

Share

COinS