- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (18 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0415247977
- ISBN-13: 978-0415247979
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.5 x 2.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,341,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
On Stories (Thinking in Action)
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Product Description
Review
..."his argument that appreciating story is an essential part of being human is both strong and true.."
-"The Guardian
..."a paean to storytelling....The voice is clear, humane and level-headed. Kearney serves as an guide through this brief history of the ways stories have worked, for better or for worse, in our lives.."
-"The Sunday Tribune
"Like the best philosophy, and the best intellectual history, this is serious stuff dealt with a light hand.."
-Roy Foster, "The Guardian
"Kearney's chief virtue has always been pedogogical, as a gifted storyeller of ideas, and this work is no exception.."
-The Irish Times
"This is clearly an important series. I look forward to reading future volumes."
-Frank Kermode
-"The Guardian
..."a paean to storytelling....The voice is clear, humane and level-headed. Kearney serves as an guide through this brief history of the ways stories have worked, for better or for worse, in our lives.."
-"The Sunday Tribune
"Like the best philosophy, and the best intellectual history, this is serious stuff dealt with a light hand.."
-Roy Foster, "The Guardian
"Kearney's chief virtue has always been pedogogical, as a gifted storyeller of ideas, and this work is no exception.."
-The Irish Times
"This is clearly an important series. I look forward to reading future volumes."
-Frank Kermode
Product Description
Stories offer us some of the richest and most enduring insights into the human condition and have preoccupied philosophy since Aristotle. On Stories presents in clear and compelling style just why narrative has this power over us and argues that the unnarrated life is not worth living. Drawing on the work of James Joyce, Sigmund Freud's patient 'Dora' and the case of Oscar Schindler, Richard Kearney skilfully illuminates how stories not only entertain us but can determine our lives and personal identities. He also considers nations as stories, including the story of Romulus and Remus in the founding of Rome. Throughout, On Stories stresses that, far from heralding the demise of narrative, the digital era merely opens up new stories.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Telling stories is as basic to human beings as eating. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Telling stories is as basic to human beings as eating. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This philosophic take on stories covers the history and contemporary necessity of stories - aswell as outlining the boundries of storytelling.
The book examines the relationship between narrative and other fields of study: with verifyable history (Part Two); with Identity and culture (Part Three; all with a psychological slant. The inter-disciplinary approach provides perspectives and nuggets of fascinating fact that one would normally remain ignorant of. (To mention just some topics touched upon would include Freud, the Holocaust, ancient Greek Irish British and American narritive origins, theatre, film, ect)
Kearney concludes by showing how Aristotle's poetics is still relevant.
Definatly would have been a five-star book if fully referenced with a bibliography; it is, on the otherhand, totally accessable to the non-academic reader. Typically Irish terminology, phrases and rhetoric may also frustrate some readers.
The book examines the relationship between narrative and other fields of study: with verifyable history (Part Two); with Identity and culture (Part Three; all with a psychological slant. The inter-disciplinary approach provides perspectives and nuggets of fascinating fact that one would normally remain ignorant of. (To mention just some topics touched upon would include Freud, the Holocaust, ancient Greek Irish British and American narritive origins, theatre, film, ect)
Kearney concludes by showing how Aristotle's poetics is still relevant.
Definatly would have been a five-star book if fully referenced with a bibliography; it is, on the otherhand, totally accessable to the non-academic reader. Typically Irish terminology, phrases and rhetoric may also frustrate some readers.
4 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This fascinating topic for a book suffers rather, in my view, from being written by a philosopher rather than a literary critic. Slightly turgid and jargon-reliant, it becomes a struggle, at times, to follow Kearney's argument (and also, sadly, to care that you're not). Also the author's (or perhaps his editor's) periodic inability to construct correct sentences is irritating*, and undermines his authority. I was really excited when I bought this book, but quickly became disappointed and 'turned off' as I read it. A real shame.
*Where's the verb, dammit?!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant and profound!
23 Jan 2010
Format:Kindle Edition
Ocassionally one encounters a thinker who both confirms and challenges every experience and thought long seen as personal and private, suddenly connecting them to a wide world of possibilities. Kearney, in this elegant and concise little book, does exactly this for me. On Stories is both brilliant and profound.
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