The Story behind any Story: The Paris Lecture

Abstract

The narratives of the world are numberless; yet, all stories may be seen as chapters of a single story. Evolutionary approaches to literary and cultural phenomena have led to a growing awareness that these literary and cultural phenomena are best accounted for within a consilient disciplinary framework. The present lecture aims to draw from the aforementioned theoretical outlook a series of conclusions relevant to narratology, in particular to the narratological conceptualization of time. Diverse cultural conceptions of big history underpin the production, the reception and the critical analysis of any specific narrative, as well as any narrativizing strategy. Herbert Spencer's philosophical work will be seen through the lens of its narratological significance, as a significant contribution in the development of our own version of big history, in the narrativization of science, and in the development of a scientific narratology.

Keywords: Narrative, Narratology, Big history, Evolution, Evolutionism, Herbert Spencer, Narrativity, Semiotics, Cognitive poetics