The film we watched at the start of this unit also claims that narrative has as much capacity for harm as it has for good. This is because the order and meaning it recognises in, and therefore imposes on, human life and the nature of the universe may be so convincing and/or attractive that we fail to notice how prejudicial or inimical it might be to certain peoples, belief systems and/or alternative versions of events. A particular narrative might be so convincing, indeed, that we fail to notice that the representation of reality it offers is at the very least an artificial construction, and at the worst palpably untrue. To put this more simply, narratives can deceive as well as enlighten, they can present what is subjective and false as something objective and true, and they can normalise and justify what we might otherwise have found deeply abhorrent.
This is why there are so many alternative narratives about who we are as human beings, how the world works, what is most important in life and how we should live our life. The very real danger we might be seduced by any one of these narratives on its own can to this extent be resisted if we continue to remember that narratives always exist in the plural. There is not – and never can be – just one way of telling a story, just as there is not – and never can be – just one way of living in the world or one way of understanding how it all fits together.
Next: Value of narratology