The Four Ways To Construct Narratives On Origins

The book proposes an originology, an investigation into the discourses on origins. This leads to the identification of four different types of discourses on origins: the mythical discourses (biblical Genesis or Hesiod’s Theogony, for example); the rational discourses (which either delve deeper or, on the contrary, attempt to disqualify the question of origins); the scientific discourses (of the Universe, of the Earth, of life, of man as seen by the sciences); and, finally, the phenomenological discourses (which, since Husserl, propose a completely new way of entering into the question of origins). The various ways in which one can talk about origins, without exclusivity and without giving preference to any of these discourses, are examined here. The book shows that each of these discourses has a singular structure: In order to this, it defines ascending and descending types of discourse, and demonstrates that scientific discourses are ascending; mythical ones are descending; rational ones are both ascending and descending; and finally, phenomenological ones are neither ascending nor descending. It also shows that scientific discourses on origins did not themselves originate at the time of the scientific revolution, but much later, in the 19th century with Darwin. It is biology that will pave the way to physics when it turns to discourses on origins, not the other way around.

Winner of the 2003 Trillium Book Award "Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples. Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.

In recent decades, there has been a substantial turn towards narrative and life history study. The embrace of narrative and life history work has accompanied the move to postmodernism and post-structuralism across a wide range of disciplines: sociological studies, gender studies, cultural studies, social history; literary theory; and, most recently, psychology. Written by leading international scholars from the main contributing perspectives and disciplines, The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History seeks to capture the range and scope as well as the considerable complexity of the field of narrative study and life history work by situating these fields of study within the historical and contemporary context. Topics covered include: • The historical emergences of life history and narrative study • Techniques for conducting life history and narrative study • Identity and politics • Generational history • Social and psycho-social approaches to narrative history With chapters from expert contributors, this volume will prove a comprehensive and authoritative resource to students, researchers and educators interested in narrative theory, analysis and interpretation.

From covering the massacre of students at Tlatelolco in 1968 and the 1985 earthquake to the Zapatista rebellion in 1994 and the disappearance of forty-three students in 2014, Elena Poniatowska has been one of the most important chroniclers of Mexican social, cultural, and political life. In Stories That Make History, Lynn Stephen examines Poniatowska's writing, activism, and political participation, using them as a lens through which to understand critical moments in contemporary Mexican history. In her crónicas—narrative journalism written in a literary style featuring firsthand testimonies—Poniatowska told the stories of Mexico's most marginalized people. Throughout, Stephen shows how Poniatowska helped shape Mexican politics and forge a multigenerational political community committed to social justice. In so doing, she presents a biographical and intellectual history of one of Mexico's most cherished writers and a unique history of modern Mexico.

Are historians story-tellers? Is it possible to tell true stories about the past? These are just two of the questions raised in this comprehensive collection of texts about philosophy, theory and methodology of writing history.

Narrative inquiry refers to a subset of qualitative research design in which stories are used to describe human action. This book contains current ideas in this field of research, and will be of interest to qualitative researchers.

What would it be like if your existence was erased for half a century? This is the reality for the Korean comfort girls-women whose lives had been erased since the time of the expansion of comfort stations by the Japanese military in 1937. This book is an effort to bring these women back to life and to make their voices, experiences and memories available to future generations. The experiences of Korean comfort girls-women are a paradigmatic example of how military sexual violence can obliterate the dignity of women and shame them into nonexistence. This book examines how the turning of their innocence into inadequacy, actively by the Japanese government and passively by the Korean government and its people, and also by the world, compounded their long, miserable suffering for half a century until Kim Hak-sun broke the silence in 1991 with the support of Korean activists. The relentless and courageous efforts of Korean comfort girls-women and activists on the road to healing and justice are shared here. These efforts made it possible for us to hear their horrific stories, which are embedded with numerous and intense traumas, allowing them to unfold and be shared on the road to justice and healing.