Abstract
This chapter investigates storytelling’s role in political narrative. It takes a long-term perspective, where “political narrative” does not refer to coverage of the politics of the day, but rather to stories about the foundation of “our” polity and its heroes. The chapter argues that the cultural or group identity-forming role of narrative is not secondary to economics or politics but, on the contrary, that storytelling is primary, constituting the polity. It identifies the evolution of two kinds of story: personal or “smiling” narratives for selves; and power or “smiting” stories for states. The question for the digital storytelling movement—potentially the most democratic mode of narration—is whether it can call new kinds of polity into being without using “state” narratives based on violence.
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Hartley, J. (2017). Smiling or Smiting?—Selves, States and Stories in the Constitution of Polities. In: Dunford, M., Jenkins, T. (eds) Digital Storytelling . Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59152-4_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59152-4_16
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