Contemporary Uses of Narrative 7.5 HP

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This course introduces the basic structural elements of narrative and demonstrates how they make narrative an efficient cultural form for creating meaning in individual and collective experiences. During the last decades of the 20th century, mass media left their traditional role of neutral reporting to commence describing reality in terms of dramatic and emotionally engaging stories. Political parties started to feed their potential electors with narratives instead of with ideologies. Producing companies ceased selling products; for some time they merchandized brands, while today they distribute stories about their brands. Company directors use various form of storytelling as techniques of leadership. The course invites the student to reflect over the possible cultural, social and political consequences of the so called narrative turn in mass media, politics, and business.