JPA JIO The Narrative Construction of Reality Jerome Bruner Surely since the Enlightenment, if not efore, the

stu!y of min! has centere! "rinci"ally on ho# man achieves a $true$ %no#le!ge of the #orl!& Em"hasis in this "ursuit has varie!, of course' em"iricists have concentrate! on the min!(s inter"lay #ith an e)ternal #orl! of nature, ho"ing to fin! the %ey in the association of sensations an! i!eas, #hile rationalists have loo%e! in#ar! to the "o#ers of min! itself for the "rinci"les of right reason& The o *ective, in either case, has een to !iscover ho# #e achieve $reality,$ that is to say, ho# #e get a relia le fi) on the #orl!, a #orl! that is, as it #ere, assume! to e immuta le an!, as it #ere, $there to e o serve!&$ +,- ./ .01 2,/34 ./5 6789:.7;</=, 81 -37 >87 ,7/ ,?71, 0 <2@A.0 ./5 81B?C,71/5 ,12=<8./D 2,7>21.?CB0>2 >5?E:D ;./ ,:D / F1B?:,/D 2,7.5G3F127 .01 H8@0B714I G1C;0 ./5 >-;</5& J A<98;0 ,/5 >8.F >87?/=D ./,/B2.4B0>2 ,F1: ;K 85.4 .01 2,7LE:M0 95;7>F ,/7>E@@27' /7 2<,27?7;.AD 2,7>A1.?:;81 ./ 21L789A?/1 ./5D ;.7D 8@@0@2,7L?F;27D ./5 ,12=<8./D <2 ./1 2M:.2?7>- >-;</ .0D 9=;0D, 2@,EN/1.8D A.;7 18 O?/51 ./ >@27LE G78 .01 ;=1L2;0 .:1 87;B4;2:1 <2 .7D 7LA2D, 21C /7 /?B/@/G7;.AD 2,7>21.?CB0>81 ;.7D 2;:.2?7>AD L51F<27D ./5 EL7/5 ./5 ,12=<8./D G78 18 >8B72?C;/51 .7D 8?3AD .0D >8B8?4D @/G7>4D& P ;.-3/D ;2 >FB2 <78 8,- .7D L=/ ,2?7,.C;27D 4.81 18 818>8@59B2E ./ ,CD 9.F1/5<2 ;.01 H,?8G<8.7>-.0.8I, ,/5 ;0<8E127 ./ ,CD >8./?BC1/5<2 18 A3/5<2 A181 8M7-,7;./ /?7;<./5 >-;</5, 21-D >-;</5 ,/5 2E187, -,:D ,F1.8, 8<2.FO@0./D >87, -,:D ,F1.8, H2>2E G78 18 ./1 ,8?8.0?/=<2I& This Quest has, of course, ha! a "rofoun! effect on the !evelo"ment of "sychology, an! the em"iricist an! rationalist tra!itions have !ominate! our conce"tions of ho# the min! gro#s an! ho# it gets its gras" on the $real #orl!&$ In!ee!, at mi!century Restalt theory re"resente! the rationalist #ing of this enter"rise an! American learning theory the em"iricist& Both gave accounts of mental !evelo"ment as "rocee!ing in some more or less linear an! uniform fashion from an initial incom"etence in gras"ing reality to a final com"etence, in one case attri uting it to the #or%ing out of internal "rocesses or mental organiSation, an! in the other to some uns"ecifie! "rinci"le of reflection y #hichT#hether through reinforcement, association, or con!itioningT#e came to res"on! to the #orl! $as it is&$ There have al#ays een !issi!ents #ho Critical InQuiry UV WAutumn UXXUY

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

challenge! these vie#s, ut con*ectures a out human mental !evelo"ment have een influence! far more y ma*oritarian rationalism an! em"iricism than y these !issi!ent voices& In more recent times, Piaget ecame the s"o%esman for the classic rationalist tra!ition y arguing the universality of a series of invariant !evelo"mental stages, each #ith its o#n set of inherent logical o"erations that successively an! ine)ora ly le! the chil! to construct a mental re"resentation of the real #orl! a%in to that of the !etache!, !is"assionate scientist& [hile he !i! not Quite !rive the em"iricist learning theorists from the fiel! Wthey have egun to revive through their formulation of $connectionist$ com"uter simulations of learningY, his vie#s !ominate! the three !eca!es follo#ing the Secon! [orl! [ar& No# there is mounting criticism of his vie#s& The gro#th of %no#le!ge of $reality$ or of the mental "o#ers that ena le this gro#th to occur, the critics argue, is neither unilinear, strictly !erivational in a logical sense, nor is it, as it #ere, $across the oar!&$ \astery of one tas% !oes not assure mastery of other tas%s that, in a formal sense, are governe! y the same "rinci"les& ]no#le!ge an! s%ill, rather, are !omain s"ecific an!, conseQuently, uneven in their accretion ^_`a_^J& Princi"les an! "roce!ures learne! in one !omain !o not automatically transfer to other !omains& Such fin!ings #ere not sim"ly a $failure to confirm$ Piaget or the rational "remise generally&U Rather, if the acQuisition of %no#le!ge an! of mental "o#ers is in!ee! !omain s"ecific an! not automatically transfera le, this surely im"lies that a !omain, so calle!, is a set of "rinci"les an! "roce!ures, rather li%e a "rosthetic !evice, that "ermits intelligence to e use! in certain #ays, ut not in others& bbbbb Each particular way of using intelligence develops an integrity of its ownTa %in! of %no#le!gec "luscs%illc"lusctool integrityTthat fits it to a "articular range of a""lica ility& It is a little $reality$ of its o#n that is constitute! y the "rinci"les an! "roce!ures that #e use #ithin it& These !omains, loo%e! at in another #ay, constitute something li%e a culture(s treasury of tool %its& de# "eo"le ever master the #hole range of tool %its' #e gro# clever in certain s"heres an! remain incom"etent in others in #hich, as it #ere, #e !o not ecome $hitche!$ to the relevant tool %it& In!ee!, one can go even further an! argue, as some have, that
&$

U& See Thin%ing an! eearning S%ills, e!& Ju!ith [& Segal, Susan ] Chi"man, an! Ro ert Rlaser Wfills!ale, N& J&, UXVgY&
U

Jerome Bruner is research "rofessor of "sychology at Ne# hor% iniversity, #here he is also serving as \eyer jisiting Professor of ea#& fis most recent oo%, Acts of \eaning, a""eare! in UXXk& In UXVl he receive! the BalSan PriSe for $a lifetime contri ution to the stu!y of human "sychology

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

such cultural tool %its Wif I may so !esignate the "rinci"les an! "roce!ures involve! in !omaincs"ecific gro#thY may in fact have e)erte! selection "ressures on the evolution of human ca"acities& It may e, for e)am"le, that the several forms of intelligence "ro"ose! y fo#ar! Rar!ner W#hich he attem"ts to vali!ate y the *oint evi!ence of neuro"athology, genius, an! cultural s"ecialiSationY may e outcomes of such evolutionary selection&WZYZ The attraction of this vie# is, of course, that it lin%s man an! his %no#le!gecgaining an! %no#le!gecusing ca"a ilities to the culture of #hich he an! his ancestors #ere active mem ers& But it brings profoundly into question not only the universality of knowledge from one domain to another, but the universal translatability of knowledge from one culture to another. For in this dispensation, knowledge is never "point-of-viewless." This vie# is very com"ati le #ith another tren! that has arisen in the analysis of human intelligence an! of $reality construction&$ It is not a ne# vie#, ut it has ta%en on ne# life in a ne# guise& Originally intro!uce! y jygots%y an! cham"ione! y his #i!ening circle of a!mirers, the ne# "osition is that cultural "ro!ucts, li%e language an! other sym olic systems, me!iate thought an! "lace their stam" on our re"resentations of reality&WmYm In its latest version, it ta%es the name, after John Seely Bro#n an! Allan Collins, of $!istri ute! intelligence&$WnYn An in!ivi!ual(s #or%ing intelligence is never $solo&$ It cannot e un!erstoo! #ithout ta%ing into account his or her reference oo%s, notes, com"uter "rograms an! !ata ases, or most im"ortant of all, the net#or% of frien!s, colleagues, or mentors on #hom one leans for hel" an! a!vice& hour chance of #inning a No el PriSe, farriet ouc%erman once tol! me, increases immeasura ly if you have #or%e! in the la oratory of some o!y #ho has alrea!y #on one, not ecause of "ull ut ecause of access to the i!eas an! criticisms of those #ho %no# etter& Once one ta%es such vie#s as seriously as they !eserve, there are some interesting an! not so o vious conseQuences& The first is that there are "ro a ly a fair num er of im"ortant !omains su""orte! y cultural tool

See John Seely Bro#n, Allan Collins, an! Paul pugui!, $Situate! Cognition an! the Culture of eearning,$ E!ucational Researcher UV WJan&cde & UXVXY' mZcnZ&
Z

See \ichael Cole(s forthcoming oo% on culture an! min!q e& S& jygots%y, Thought an! eanguage, trans, an! e!& Eugenia fanfmann an! Rertru!e ja%ar WCam ri!ge, \ass&, UXrZY, an! \in! in Society' The pevelo"ment of figher Psychological Processes, e!& Cole WCam ri!ge, \ass&, UXlVYq an! Cultural Psychology' Essays on Com"arative fuman pevelo" ment, e!& James [& Stigler, Richar! A& Sh#e!er, an! Ril ert fer!t WChicago, UXVXY&
m n

See fo#ar! Rar!ner, drames of \in!' The Theory of \ulti"le Intelligence WNe# hor%, UXVmY&

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

%its an! !istri utional net#or%s& A secon! is that the !omains are "ro a ly !ifferentially integrate! in !ifferent cultures, as anthro"ologists have een insisting for some years no#& WgYg An! a thir! is that many !omains are not organiSe! y logical "rinci"les or associative connections, "articularly those that have to !o #ith man(s %no#le!ge of himself, his social #orl!, his culture& In!ee!, most of our %no#le!ge a out human %no#le!gecgetting an! realitycconstructing is !ra#n from stu!ies of ho# "eo"le come to %no# the natural or "hysical #orl! rather than the human or sym olic #orl!& s dor many historical reasons, inclu!ing the "ractical "o#er inherent in the use of logic, mathematics, an! em"irical science, #e have concentrate! on the chil!(s gro#th as $little scientist,$ $little logician,$ $little mathematician&$ These are ty"ically Enlightenmentcins"ire! stu!ies& It is curious ho# little effort has gone into !iscovering ho# humans come to construct the social #orl! an! the things that trans"ire therein& Surely, such challenging recent #or%s as E& E& Jones(s magisterial Inter"ersonal Perce"tion ma%e it clear that #e !o not achieve our mastery of social reality y gro#ing u" as $little scientists,$ $little logicians,$ or $little mathematicians&$WrYr So #hile #e have learne! a great !eal in!ee! a out ho# #e come eventually to construct an! $e)"lain$ a #orl! of nature in terms of causes, "ro a ilities, s"acectime manifol!s, an! so on, #e %no# altogether too little a out ho# #e go a out constructing an! re"resenting the rich an! messy !omain of human interaction& It is #ith *ust this !omain that I #ant no# to concern myself& ei%e the !omains of logicalc scientific reality construction, it is #ell uttresse! y "rinci"les an! "roce!ures& It has an availa le cultural tool %it or tra!ition on #hich its "roce!ures are mo!elle!, an! its !istri utional reach is as #i!e an! as active as gossi" itself& Its form is so familiar an! u iQuitous that it is li%ely to e overloo%e!, in much the same #ay as #e su""ose that the fish #ill e the last to !iscover #ater& As I have argue! e)tensively else#here, #e organiSe

our e)"erience an! our memory of human ha""enings mainly in the form of narrativeTstories, e)cuses, myths, reasons for !oing an! not !oing, an! so on& Narrative is
a conventional form, transmitte! culturally an! constraine! y each in!ivi!ual(s level of mastery an! y his conglomerate of "rosthetic !evices, colleagues, an! mentors& inli%e the constructions generate! y logical an! scientific "roce!ures that can e #ee!e! out y falsification, narrative constructions can only achieve $verisimilitu!e&$ Narratives, then, are a version of reality, #hose acce"ta ility is governe! y convention an! $narrative necessity$ rather than y em"irical verification an! logical reQuire!ness,

See Thomas Rla!#in, East Is a Big Bir! WCam ri!ge, \ass& UXlkYq Renato Rosal!o, Culture an! Truth' The Rema%ing of Social Analysis WBoston, UXVXYq Cliffor! ReertS, eocal ]no#le!geq durther Essays in Inter"reting Anthro"ology WNe# hor%, UXVmYq an! Jerome Bruneic, Acts of \eaning WCam ri!ge, \ass,, UXXkY&
g r

See E& E& Jones, Inter"ersonal Perce"tion WNe# hor%, UXXkY&

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

although ironically #e have no com"unction a out calling stories true or I "ro"ose no# to s%etch out ten features of narrative, rather in the s"irit of constructing an armature on #hich a more systematic account might e constructe!& As #ith all accounts of forms of re"resentation of the #orl!, I shall have a great !ifficulty in !istinguishing #hat may e calle! the narrative mo!e of thought from the forms of narrative !iscourse& As #ith all "rosthetic !evices, each ena les an! gives form to the other, *ust as the structure of language an! the structure of thought eventually ecome ine)trica le& Eventually it ecomes a vain enter"rise to say #hich is the more asicTthe mental "rocess or the !iscourse form that e)"resses itTfor, *ust as our e)"erience of the natural #orl! ten!s to imitate the categories of familiar science, so our e)"erience of human affairs comes to ta%e the form of the narratives #e use in telling a out them& \uch of #hat I have to say #ill not e at all ne# to those #ho have een #or%ing in the vineyar!s of narratology or #ho have concerne! themselves #ith critical stu!ies of narrative forms& In!ee!, the ancestry of many of the i!eas that #ill concern me can e trace! ac% !irectly to the !e ates that have een going on among literary theorists over the last !eca!e or t#o& \y comments are echoes of those !e ates no# rever erating in the human sciences Tnot only in "sychology, anthro"ology, an! linguistics, ut also in the "hiloso"hy of language& dor once the $cognitive revolution$ in the human sciences rought to the fore the issue of ho# $reality$ is re"resente! in the act of %no#ing, it ecame a""arent that it !i! not suffice to eQuate re"resentations #ith images, #ith "ro"ositions, #ith le)ical net#or%s, or even #ith more tem"orally e)ten!e! vehicles such as sentences& It #as "erha"s a !eca!e ago that "sychologists ecame alive to the "ossi ility of narrative as a form not only of re"resenting ut of constituting reality, a matter of #hich I shall have more to say "resently& At that "oint cognitively incline! "sychologists an! anthro"ologists egan to !iscover that their colleagues in literary theory an! historiogra"hy #ere !ee"ly immerse! in as%ing com"ara le Questions a out te)tually situate! narrative& I thin% one can even !ate the $"ara!igm shift$ to the a""earance of a collection of essays !ra#n from this *ournal in UXVU TOn Narrative&t If some of #hat I have to say a out the features of narrative, then, seems ol! hat to the literary theorist, let him or her ear in min! that the o *ect is !ifferent& The central concern is not ho# narrative as te)t is conc
dor a fuller, more !iscursive account of the nature an! "ro!ucts of narrative thought, see my Actual \in!s, Possi le [orl!s WCam ri!ge, \ass&, UXVrY, an! Acts of \ean ing& See also Theo!ore R& Sar in, Narrative Psychology' The Storie! Nature of fuman Con!uct WNe# hor%, UXVrY& See On Narrative, e!& [& J& T& \itchell WChicago, UXVU Y&

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

structe!, ut rather ho# it o"erates as an instrument of min! in the construction of reality& An! no# to the ten features of narrative&

Narrative !iachronicity& A narrative is an account of events occur ring over time& It is

irre!uci ly !urative& It may e characteriSa le in seemingly nonctem"oral terms Was a trage!y or a farceY, ut such terms only summariSe #hat are Quintessentially "atterns of events occurring over time& The time involve!, moreover, as Paul Ricoeur has note!, is $human time$ rather than a stract or $cloc%$ time&XX It is time #hose significance is given y the meaning assigne! to events #ithin its com"ass& [illiam ea ov, one the greatest stu!ents of narrative, also regar!s tem"oral seQuence as essential to narrative, ut he locates this tem"orality in the meaningc"reserving seQuence of clauses in narrative !iscourse itself&WUkYUk [hile this is a useful ai! to linguistic analysis, it nonetheless o scures an im"ortant as"ect of narrative re"resentation& dor there are many conventions for e)"ressing the seQuence! !urativity of narrative even in !iscourse, li%e flash ac%s an! flashcfor#ar!s, tem"oral synec!oche, an! so on& As Nelson Roo!man #arns, narrative com"rises an ensem le of #ays of constructing an! re"resenting the seQuential, !iachronic or!er of human events, of #hich the seQuencing of clauses in s"o%en or #ritten $stories$ is only one !evice&WUUYUU Even nonver al me!ia have conventions of narrative !iachronicity, as in the $leftctocright$ an! $to"ctoc ottom$ conventions of cartoon stri"s an! cathe!ral #in!o#s& [hat un!erlies all these forms for re"resenting narrative is a $mental mo!el$ #hose !efining "ro"erty is its uniQue "attern of events over time& An! to that #e shall come "resently& Particularity& Narratives ta%e as their ostensive reference "articular ha""enings& But this is, as it #ere, their vehicle rather than their !estination& dor stories "lainly fall into more general ty"es' oyc#ooscgirl, ullycgetschisccomeu""ance, an! so on& In this sense the "articulars of narratives are to%ens of roa!er ty"es& [here the oyc#ooscgirl scri"t calls for the giving of a gift, for e)am"le, the gift can eQually #ell e flo#ers, "erfume, or even an en!less gol!en threa!& Any of these may serve as an

See [illiam ea ov an! Joshua [aletS%y, $Narrative Analysis' Oral jersions of Personal E)"erience,$ in Essays on the jer al an! jisual Arts, e!&June felm WSeattle, UXrlY, ""& UZcnnq ea ov, $S"eech Actions an! Reactions in Personal Narrative,$ in Reorgeto#n Roun! Ta le on eanguages an! einguistics UXVU, e!& pe orah Tannen W[ashington, p& C, UXVZY, ""& ZUXcnl&
X Uk

X& See Paul Ricoeur, Time an! Narrative, trans& ]athleen Blarney an! pavi! Pellauer, m vols& WChicago, UXVncVVY, vol& U& UU See Nelson Roo!man, $T#iste! Talesq or, Story, Stu!y, an! Sym"hony,$ in On Nar rative, ""& XXcUUg&
U

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

a""ro"riate to%en or em lem of a gift& Particularity achieves its em lematic status y its em e!!e!ness in a story that is in some sense generic& An!, in!ee!, it is y virtue of this em e!!e! ness in genre, to loo% ahea!, that narrative "articulars can e $fille! in$ #hen they are missing from an account& The $suggestiveness$ of a story lies, then, in the em lematic nature of its "articulars, its relevance to a more inclusive narrative ty"e& But for all that, a narrative cannot e realiSe! save through "articular em o!iment&Intentional state entailment& Narratives are a out "eo"le acting in a setting, an! the ha""enings that efall them must e relevant to the irintentional states #hile so engage!Tto their eliefs, !esires, theories, values, an! so on& [hen animals or noncagentive o *ects are cast as narrative "rotagonists, they must e en!o#e! #ith intentional states for the "ur"ose, li%e the eittle Re! Engine in the chil!ren(s story& Physical events "lay a role in stories chiefly y affecting the intentional states of their "rotagonists& The narrativist can only agree #ith Bau!elaire that the first usiness of an artist is to su stitute man for nature& But intentional states in narrative never fully !etermine the course of events, since a character #ith a "articular intentional state might en! u" !oing "ractically anything& dor some measure of agency is al#ays "resent in narrative, an! agency "resu""oses choiceT some element of $free!om&$ If "eo"le can "re!ict anything from a character(s intentional states, it is only o# he #ill feel or ho# he #ill have "erceive! the situation& The loose lin% et#een intentional states an! su seQuent action is the reason #hy narrative accounts cannot "rovi!e causal e)"lanations& [hat they su""ly instea! is the asis for inter"reting #hy a character acte! as he or she !i!& Inter"retation is concerne! #ith $reasons$ for things ha""ening, rather than strictly #ith their $causes,$ a matter to #hich #e turn ne)t&

fermeneutic com"osa ility& A "reliminary #or! of e)"lanation is nee!e! here& The

#or! hermeneutic im"lies that there is a te)t or a te)t analogue through #hich some o!y has een trying to e)"ress a meaning an! from #hich some o!y is trying to e)tract a meaning& This in turn im"lies that there is a !ifference et#een #hat is e)"resse! in the te)t an! #hat the te)t might mean, an! furthermore that there is no uniQue solution to the tas% of !etermining the meaning for this e)"ression& Such hermeneutic inter"retation is reQuire! #hen there is neither n rational metho! of assuring the $truth$ of a meaning assigne! to the te)t as a #hole, nor an em"irical metho! for !etermining the verifia ility of the constituent elements that ma%e u" the te)t& In effect, the est ho"e of hermeneutic analysis is to "rovi!e an intuitively convincing account of the meaning of the te)t as a #hole in the light of the constituent "arts that ma%e it u"& This lea!s to the !ilemma of the soccalle! hermeneutic circleTin #hich #e try to *ustify the $rightness$ of one rea!ing of a te)t in terms of other readings rather than y, say, rational !e!uction or em"irical "roof& The most concrete #ay of e)"licating this !ilemma or $circle$ is

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

y reference to the relations et#een the meanings assigne! the #hole of a te)t Wsay a storyY an! its constituent "arts& As Charles Taylor "uts it, $#e are trying to esta lish a rea!ing for the #hole te)t, an! for this #e a""eal to rea!ings of its "artial e)"ressionsq an! yet ecause #e are !ealing #ith meaning, #ith ma%ingc sense, #here e)"ressions only ma%e sense or not in relation to others, the rea!ings of "artial e)"ressions !e"en! on those of others, an! ultimately of the #hole&$WUZYUZ This is "ro a ly no#here etter illustrate! than in narrative& The accounts of "rotagonists an! events that constitute a narrative are selecte! an! sha"e!, in terms of a "utative WY story or "lot that then $contains$ them& At the same time, the $#hole$ Wthe mentally re"resente! "utative storyY is !e"en!ent for its formation on a su""ly of "ossi le constituent "arts& In this sense, as #e have alrea!y note!, "arts an! #holes in a narrative rely on each other for their via ility&WUmYUm In jla!imir Pro""(s terms, the "arts of a narrative serve as $functions$ of the narrative structure as a #hole&WUnYUn But that #hole cannot e constructe! #ithout reference to such a""ro"riate "arts& This "uSSling "artc#hole te)tual inter!e"en!ence in narrative is, of course, an illustration of the !efining "ro"erty of the hermeneutic circle& dor a story can only e $realiSe!$ #hen its "arts an! #hole can, as it #ere, e ma!e to live together& This hermeneutic "ro"erty mar%s narrative oth in its construction an! in its com"rehension& dor narratives !o not e)ist, as it #ere, in some real #orl!, #aiting there "atiently an! eternally to e veri!ically mirrore! in a te)t& The act of constructing a narrative, moreover, is consi!era ly more than $selecting$ events either from real life, from memory, or from fantasy an! then "lacing them in an a""ro"riate or!er& The events themselves nee! to e rec constitute! in the light of the overall narrativeTin Pro""(s terms, to e ma!e $functions$ of the story& This is a matter to #hich #e #ill return later& No# let me return to $hermeneutic com"osa ility&$ The telling of a story an! its com"rehension as a story !e"en! on the human ca"acity to "rocess %no#le!ge in this inter"retive #ay& It is a #ay of "rocessing that, in the main, has een grossly neglecte! y stu!ents of min! raise! either in the rationalist or in the em"iricist tra!itions& The former have een concerne! #ith min! as an instrument of right reasoning, #ith the means #e em"loy for esta lishing the necessary truth inherent in a set of connecte! "ro"ositions& Piaget #as a stri%ing e)am"le of this rational tra!ition& Em"iricists, for their "art, reste! their claims on a min! ca"a le of veric

Charles Taylor, $Inter"retation an! the Sciences of \an,$ in Inter"retative Social Science' A Rea!er, e!& Paul Ra ino# an! [illiam \& Sullivan WBer%eley, UXlXY, "& ZV
UZ Um

See Ricoeur, Time an! Narrative, vol& U

Un

&See jla!imir Pro"", \or"hology of the dol%tale, trans& eaurence Scott, e!& eouis [agner, Z!& e!&WUXZVq Austin, Te)&, UXrVYq see also his Theory an! fistory of dol%lore, trans& Aria!na h& \artin an! Richar! P& \artin, e!& Anatoly ei erman W\innea"olis, UXVn
U

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

fying the constituent $atomic "ro"ositions$ that com"rise! a te)t& But neither of these "roce!ures, right reason or verification, suffice for e)"licating ho# a narrative is either "ut together y a s"ea%er or inter"rete! y a hearer& This is the more sur"rising since there is com"elling evi!ence to in!icate that narrative com"rehension is among the earliest "o#ers of min! to a""ear in the young chil! an! among the most #i!ely use! forms of organiSing human e)"erience&WUgYUg \any literary theorists an! "hiloso"hers of min! have argue! that the act of inter"reting in this #ay is force! on us only #hen a te)t of the #orl! to #hich it "resumes to refer is in some #ay $confuse!, incom"lete, clou!y&$WUrYUr pou tless #e are more a#are of our inter"retive efforts #hen face! #ith te)tual or referential am iguities& But I #oul! ta%e strong e)ce"tion to the general claim that inter"retation is force! on us only y a surfeit of am iguity& The illusion create! y s%ilful narrative that this is not the case, that a story $is as it is$ an! nee!s no inter"retation, is "ro!uce! y t#o Quite !ifferent "rocesses& The first shoul! "ro a ly e calle! $narrative se!uction&$ Rreat storytellers have the artifices of narrative reality construction so #ell mastere! that their telling "reem"ts momentarily the "ossi ility of any ut a single inter"retationT ho#ever iSarre it may e& The famous e"iso!e of a \artian invasion in Orson [elles(s roa!cast of The [ar of the [orl!s "rovi!es a stri%ing e)am"lecWUlYUl Its rilliant e)"loitation of the !evices of te)t, conte)t, an! miscencscene "re!is"ose! its hearers to one an! only one inter"retation, ho#ever iSarre it seeme! to them in retros"ect, It create! $narrative necessity,$ a matter #e un!erstan! much less #ell than its logical counter"art, logical necessity& The other route to ma%ing a story seem selfcevi!ent an! not in nee! of inter"retation is via $narrative analiSation&$ That is, #e can ta%e a narrative as so socially conventional, so #ell %no#n, so in %ee"ing #ith the canon, that #e can assign it to some #ellcrehearse! an! virtually automatic inter"retive routine& These constitute #hat Rolan! Barthes calle! $rea!erly$ te)ts, in contrast to $#riterly$ones that challenge the listener or rea!er into unrehearse! inter"retive activity& WUVYUV In a #or!, then, it is not te)tual or referential am iguity that com"els inter"retive activity in narrative com"rehension, ut narrative itself& Narrative se!uction or narrative analiSation may "ro!uce restricte! or routine inter"retive activity, ut this !oes not alter the "oint& Rea!erly story inter"retation or hac% story constructions can e altere! y sur"risingly

See, for e)am"le, Narratives from the Cri , e!& ]atherine Nelson WCam ri!ge, \ass&, UXVXY, an! Bruner, Acts of \eaning&
Ug Ur Ul

Taylor, $Inter"retation an! the Sciences of \an,$ "& Zg See fa!ley Cantril, The Invasion from \ars WPrinceton, N& J&, UXnkY&

See Rolan! Barthes, The Res"onsi ility of dormsq Critical Essays on \usic, Art, an! Re"resentation WNe# hor%, UXVgY&
UV

Uk

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

little instruction&WUXYUX An! the moment a hearer is ma!e sus"icious of the $facts$ of a story or the ulterior motives of a narrator, he or she imme!iately ecomes hermeneuticaily alert& If I may use an outrageous meta"hor, automatiSe! inter"retations of narratives are com"ara le to the !efault settings of a com"uter' an economical, timec an! effortcsaving #ay of !ealing #ith %no#le!geTor, as it has een calle!, a form of $min!clessness&$ZkZk Inter"retation has a long history in i lical e)egesis an! in *uris"ru!ence& It is stu!!e! #ith "ro lems that #ill ecome more familiar shortly, "ro lems that have to !o more #ith conte)t than te)t, #ith the con!itions on telling rather than #ith #hat is tol!& eet me tag t#o of them etter to i!entify them for su seQuent !iscussion& The first is the issue of intention' $#hy$ the story is tol! ho# an! #hen it is, an! inter"rete! as it is y interlocutors caught in !ifferent intentional stances themselves& Narratives are not, to use Roy farris(s felicitous "hrase, $uns"onsore! te)ts$ to e ta%en as e)isting unintentionally as if cast y fate on a "rinte! "age&ZUZU Even #hen the rea!er ta%es them in the most rea!erly #ay, he usually attri utes them Wfollo#ing conventionY as emanating from an omniscient narrator& But this con!ition is itself not to e overloo%e! as uninteresting& It "ro a ly !erives from a set of social con!itions that give s"ecial status to the #ritten #or! in a society #here literacy is a minoritarian "rerogative& A secon! conte)tual issue is the Question of ac%groun! %no#le!geTof oth the storyteller an! the listener, an! ho# each inter"rets the ac%groun! %no#le!ge of the other& The "hiloso"her filary Putnam, in a Quite !ifferent conte)t, "ro"oses t#o "rinci"les' the first is a $Princi"le of Benefit of pou t,$ the secon! a $Princi"le of Reasona le Ignorance$' the first $for i!s us to assume that & & & e)"erts are factually omniscient,$ the secon! that $any s"ea%ers are "hiloso"hically omniscient Weven unconcsciouslyY&$ZZZZ [e *u!ge their accounts accor!ingly& At the other e)treme, #e are charita le to#ar! ignorance an! forgive chil!ren an! neo"hytes their incom"lete %no#le!ge, $filling in$ for them as necessary& Or pan S"er er an! pier!re [ilson, in their #ellc%no#n !iscussion of $relevance,$ argue that in !ialogue #e ty"ically "resu""ose that #hat an interlocutor says in re"lying to us is to"icc relevant an! that #e most often assign an inter"retation to it accor!ingly in or!er to ma%e it so, there y easing our tas% in un!erstan!ing Other \in!s&ZmZm [e also ta%e for grante!, in!ee! #e institutionaliSe situations in #hich it is ta%en for grante!, that&

UX

See, for e)am"le, Peter El o#, Em racing Contraries' E)"lorations in eearning an! Teaching WNe# hor%, UXVrY& See Ellen J& eanger, \in!fulness WRea!ing, \ass&, UXVXY&

Zk

See Roy farris, $fo# poes [riting Restructure Thoughtb$ eanguage an! Communication X, no& Zum WUXVXY' XXc Ukr
ZU ZZ

filary Putnam, \in!, eanguage, an! Reality WCam ri!ge, UXlgY, "& ZlV& See pan S"er er an! pier!re [ilson, Relevanceq Communication an! Cognition WCam ri!ge, \ass&, UXVrY&

Zm

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

UU

the $%no#le!ge register$ in #hich a story is tol! is !ifferent from the one in #hich it is ta%en u", as #hen the client tells the la#yer his story in $life tal%$ an! is listene! to in $la# tal%$ so that the la#yer can a!vise a out litigation Wrather than lifeY& The analyst an! the analysan! in thera"y are com"ara le to the la#yer an! client in legal consultation&ZnZn Both these conte)tual !omains, intention attri ution an! ac%groun! %no#le!ge, "rovi!e not only ases for inter"retation ut, of course, im"ortant groun!s for negotiating ho# a story shall e ta%enTor, in!ee!, ho# it shoul! e tol!, a matter etter reserve! for later& g& Canonicity an! reach& To egin #ith, not every seQuence of events recounte! constitutes a narrative, even #hen it is !iachronic, "articular, an! organiSe! aroun! intentional states& Some ha""enings !o not #arrant telling a out an! accounts of them are sai! to e $"ointless$ rather than storyli%e& A Schan%cA elson scri"t is one such case' it is a "rescri"tion for canonical ehavior in a culturally !efine! situationcTho# to ehave in a restaurant, say&ZgZg Narratives reQuire such scri"ts as necessary ac%groun!, ut they !o not constitute narrativity itself& dor to e #orth telling, a tale must e a out ho# an im"licit canonical scri"t has een reache!, violate!, or !eviate! from in a manner to !o violence to #hat fay!en [hite calls the $legitimacy$ of the canonical scri"t& ZrZr This usually involves #hat ea ov calls a $"reci"itating event,$ a conce"t that Bar ara ferrnstein Smith "uts to goo! use in her e)"loration of literary narrative&ZlZl See ponal! P& S"ence, Narrative Truth an! fistorical Truth' \eaning an! Inter"retation in Psychoanalysis WNe# hor%, UXVZY& An un#illingness on the "art of a "atient to acce"t the "sychoanalyst(s version or inter"retation of a narrative is li%ely to lea! to an e)amination an! reformulation y the latter of the former(s story as having to !o #ith the "atient(s $resistance&$ The "atient(s version is ma!e to conform to the "sychiatrist(s version as a "rice for the thera"y(s continuation& [hile la#yers, ty"ically, in translating the client(s "er sonal $story$ into a legal narrative, offer the client o"tions in ho# the $facts of the case$ shall e legally frame!T#hether things $a!! u"$ to a narrative a out contracts, torts, or rights to !ue "rocess, sayTthe final legal story is, nonetheless, force! into a $canonical$ narrative that conforms to "revailing iases in the society #hile also corres"on!ing to some "rece!ent in the la#& So, for e)am"le, in recent American *uris"ru!ence, the $facts of the case$ of Bo#ers v& far!#ic% are inter"rete! as a violation of so!omy statutes of the State of$ Reorgia rather than as an instance of the e)ercise of the in!ivi!ual(s rights to "rivacy as guarantee! y the dourth Amen!ment to the inite! States Constitution, The $fact$ that a homose)ual act is, in this case, et#een consenting a!ults is there y rule! y the Court as $irrelevant$ to the legal story& cXV&

dor a !iscussion of the effects of im"osing $official$ *uris"ru!ential story forms on every!ay narratives, see ]im eane Sche""ele, $Telling Stories,$ fore#or! to $eegal Storytelling,$ a s"ecial issue of \ichigan ea# Revie# Vl WAug& UXVXY' Zklm
Zn Zg

Zg See Ro ert C& Schan% an! Ro ert P& A elson, Scri"ts, Plans, Roals, an! in!erstan! ing' An InQuiry into fuman ]no#le!ge Structures Wfills!ale, N& J&, UXllY&
Zr

Zr See fay!en [hite, $The jalue of Narrativity in the Re"resentation of Reality,$ in On Narrative, ""& Uc

Zl b& See ea ov an! [aletSs%y, $Narrative Analysis,$ an! Bar ara ferrnstein Smith, On the \argins of piscourse' The Relation of eiterature to eanguage WChicago, UXlVY
Zl

UZ

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

Breaches of the canonical, li%e the scri"ts reache!, are often highly conventional an! are strongly influence! y narrative tra!itions& Such reaches are rea!ily recogniSa le as familiar human "lightsTthe etraye! #ife, the cuc%ol!e! hus an!, the fleece! innocent, an! so on& Again, they are conventional "lights of rea!erly narratives& But oth scri"ts an! their reaches also "rovi!e rich groun!s for innovationTas #itness the contem"orary literaryc *ournalistic invention of the $yu""y$ scri"t or the formulation of the #hiteccollar criminal(s reach& An! this is, "erha"s, #hat ma%es the innovative storyteller such a "o#erful figure in a culture& fe may go eyon! the conventional scri"ts, lea!ing "eo"le to see human ha""enings in a fresh #ay, in!ee!, in a #ay they ha! never efore $notice!$ or even !reame!& The shift from fesio! to fomer, the a!vent of $inner a!venture$ in eaurence Sterne(s Tristram Shan!y, the a!vent of dlau ert(s "ers"ectivalism, or Joyce(s e"i"haniSing of analitiesTthese are all innovations that "ro a ly sha"e! our narrative versions of every!ay reality as #ell as change! the course of literary history, the t#o "erha"s eing not that !ifferent& It is to ea ov(s great cre!it to have recogniSe! an! "rovi!e! a linguistic account of narrative structure in terms of t#o com"onentscT#hat ha""ene! an! #hy it is #orth telling&ZV It #as for the first of these that he "ro"ose! his notion of irre!uci le clausal seQuences& The secon! ca"tures the element of reach in canonicity an! involves the use of #hat he calls evaluation for #arranting a story(s $tella ility$ as evi!encing something unusual& drom initial orientation to final co!a, the language of evaluation is ma!e to contrast #ith the language of clausal seQuenceTin tense, as"ect, or other mar%ing& It has even een remar%e! that in sign languages, the signing of seQuence an! of evaluation are !one in !ifferent "laces in the course of telling a story, the former at the center of the o!y, the latter off to the si!e& The $ reach$ com"onent of a narrative can e create! y linguistic means as #ell as y the use of a "utatively !elegitimiSing "reci"itating event in the "lot& eet me e)"lain& The Russian formalists !istinguishe! et#een the $"lot$ of a narrative, its fa ula, an! its mo!e of telling, #hat they calle! its s*uSet& Just as there are lineariSation "ro lems in converting a thought into a sentence, so there are "ro lems in, so to s"ea%, re"resenting a& fa ula in its ena ling s*uSet&ZX The literary linguist TSvetan To!orov #hose i!eas #e shall visit again later, argues that the function of inventive narrative is not so much to $fa ulate$ ne# "lots as to ren!er "reviously familiar ones uncertain or "ro lematical, challenging a rea!er into fresh ZVSee ea ov an! [aletSs%y, $Narrative Analysis&$ ZX dor a !iscussion of uses of this !istinction y the Russian formalists, see Bruner, Actual \in!s, Possi le [orl!s&

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

Um

inter"retive activityTechoing Roman Ja%o son(s famous !efinition of the artist(s tas%, $to ma%e the or!inary strange&$ WmkYmk r& Referentiality& The acce"ta ility of a narrative o viously cannot !e"en! on its correctly referring to reality, else there #oul! e no fiction& Realism in fiction must then in!ee! e a literary convention rather than a matter of correct reference& Narrative $truth$ is *u!ge! y its verisimilitu!e W+vJwPa+xyz+Y rather than its verifia ility& There seems in!ee! to e some sense in #hich narrative, rather than referring to $reality,$ may in fact create or constitute it, as #hen $fiction$ creates a $#orl!$ of its o#nTJoyce(s $pu lin$ #here "laces li%e St& Ste"hen(s Rreen or Rrafton Street, for all that they ear familiar la els, are no less real or imaginary than the characters he invents to inha it them& In a "erha"s !ee"er sense, in!ee!, it may e that the "lights an! the intentional states !e"icte! in $successful$ fiction sensitiSe us to e)"erience our o#n lives in #ays to match' [hich suggests, of course, that the !istinction et#een narrative fiction an! narrative truth is no#here nearly as o vious as common sense an! usage #oul! have us elieve& [hy common sense insists on such a shar" !istinction eing !ra#n is Quite another "ro lem, "erha"s relate! to the reQuirement of $ earing #itness&$ But that lies eyon! the sco"e of this essay& [hat !oes concern us, rather, is #hy the !istinction is intrinsically !ifficult to ma%e an! sustain& Surely one reason lies in #hat I earlier calle! the hermeneutic com"osa ility of narrative itself& dor such com"osa ility creates "ro lems for the conventional !istinction et#een $sense$ an! $reference&$ That is, the $sense$ of a story as a #hole may alter the reference an! even the referentiality of its com"onent "arts& dor a story(s com"onents, insofar as they ecome its $functions$ or ca"tives, lose their status as singular an! !efinite referring e)"ressions& St& Ste"hen(s Rreen ecomes, as it #ere, a ty"e rather than a to%en, a class of locales inclu!ing the locus so name! in pu lin& It is an invente! referent not entirely free of the meanings im"arte! y the real "lace, *ust as a story that reQuires a Y&

mk& See TSvetan To!orov, The Poetics of Prose, trans& Richar! fo#ar! {Ithaca, N& h,, UXllY& Ja%o son(s !ictum !ates, I elieve, from his Prague years an! reflects his a!miration for the Russian formalists& The e)"ression itself Woften re"eate! y Ja%o son in his farvar! lecturesY "ro a ly !erives from the formalist theoretician jictor Sh%lovs%y& The "ithiest *ustification of the "rinci"le is given in Ja%o son(s "layful e)egesis of the Armenian ri!!le in a UXZk essay on realism' $It hangs in the !ra#ing room an! is greenq #hat is itb$ the ans#er to #hich is $a herring&$ iltimately one as%s, $But #hy is the herring "ainte! greenb$ An! the only ans#er can e, $It ma%es it har!er to guess$ WRoman Ja%o son, $On Realism in Art,(t eanguage in eiterature, e!& ]rystyna Pomors%a an! Ste"hen Ru!y |Cam ri!ge, \ass&, UXVl}, ""& ZgcZkq see also his essays $duturism,$ ""& ZVcmm, an! $pa!a,$ ""& mncnkY& But the full !e"th of its theoretical !erivation can e foun! in Ja%o son(s famous !istinction et#een the mar%e! an! the unmar%e!, a !istinction "resent at every level of linguistic organiSation from the "honological through the semantic, mar%ing eing the means for signalling the unusual an! increasingly fresh inter"retive activity in the hearer& piscussions of this !istinction are scattere! throughout his Selecte! [ritings, V vols& WThe fague, UXlUcVV
mk

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

Ug

rather recent invention& If the reflectiveness "ro!uce! y silent rea!ing #as then intensifie! y the creation of ne# genresTthe soccalle! mo!ern an! "ostmo!ern novelsT#e might #ell e)"ect that such genres #oul! not e easily accessi le to the [estern nonrea!er an! even less so to a mem er of a nonliterate culture& [hile genres, thus, may in!ee! e loose ut conventional #ays of re"resenting human "lights W~+v+zzy^Y, they are also #ays of telling that "re!is"ose us to use our min!s an! sensi ilities in "articular #ays& In a #or!, #hile they may e re"resentations of social ontology, they are also invitations to a "articular style of e"istemology& As such, they may have Quite as "o#erful an influence in sha"ing our mo!es of thought as they have in creating the realities that their "lots !e"ict&WmnYmn So, for e)am"le, #e cele rate innovations in genre as changing not only the content of imagination ut its mo!us o"eran!i' dlau ert for intro!ucing a "ers"ectival relativism that !ethrone! oth the omniscient narrator an! the singular $true$ story, Joyce for slyly su stituting free association to rea% the constraints of semantic an! even syntactic conventionalism, Bec%ett for shre!!ing the narrative continuities #e ha! come to ta%e for grante! in storytelling, Calvino for converting "ostmo!ern antifoun!ationalism into classic mythic forms, an! so on& Narrative genre, in this !is"ensation, can e thought of not only as a #ay of constructing human "lights ut as "rovi!ing a gui!e for using min!, insofar as the use of min! is gui!e! y the use of an ena ling language& V& Normativeness& Because its $tella ility$ as a form of !iscourse rests on a reach of conventional e)"ectation, narrative is necessarily normative& A reach "resu""oses a norm& This foun!ing con!ition of narrative has le! stu!ents of the su *ect, from fay!en [hite an! jictor Turner to Paul Ricoeur, to "ro"ose that narrative is centrally concerne! #ith cultural legitimacy&mgmg A ne# generation of legal scholars, not sur"risingly, has even egun to e)"lore the im"licit norms inherent in legal testimony, #hich, of course, is "rinci"ally narrative in form&mrgr [hile every o!y from Aristotle to the soccalle! narrative grammarians all agree that a story "ivots on a reach in legitimacy, the !ifferences in &

See Shirley Brice feath, [ays #ith [or!s' eanguage, eife an! [or% in Communities an! Classrooms WCam ri!ge, UXVmYq Elinor Ochs an! Bam i B& Schieffelin, AcQuiring Conver sational Com"etence Weon!on, U XVmYq Ochs, Carolyn Taylor, Oina Ru!ol"h, an! Ruth Smith, $Narrative Activity as a \e!ium for TheorycBuil!ing$ W"a"er !elivere! at the iniversity of Southern California, UXVXYq an! Carol dleisher del!man, $\onologue as Pro lemcSolving Narrative,$ in Narratives from the Cri , ""& XVTUUX mg See es"ecially [hite, Tro"ics of piscourse' Essays in Cultural Criticism WBaltimore, UXlVY, an! jictor Turner, drom Ritual to Theatreq The fuman Seriousness of Play WNe# hor%, UXVZY&
mn gr

See the articles forming the s"ecial issue $eegal Storytelling$ of \ichigan ea# Revie#&

Ur

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

ho# the notion of reach is conceive! are themselves revealing of !iffering cultural em"hases& Ta%e ]enneth Bur%e(s cele rate! account of the !ramatic $"enta!&$ml The "enta! consists of an Agent, an Act, a Scene, a Pur"ose, an! an Agency, the a""ro"riate alance among these elements eing !efine! as a $ratio$ !etermine! y cultural convention& [hen this $ratio$ ecomes un alance!, #hen conventional e)"ectation is reache!, Trou le ensues& An! it is Trou le that "rovi!es the engine of !rama, Trou le as an im alance et#een any an! all of the five elements of the "enta!' Nora in A poll(s fouse, for e)am"le, is a re ellious Agent in an ina""ro"riately ourgeois Scene, an! so on& Preci"itating events are, as it #ere, em lems of the im alance& Bur%e(s "rinci"al em"hasis is on "light, fa ula& It is, as it #ere, concerne! ontologically #ith the cultural #orl! an! its arrangements, #ith norms as they $e)ist&$ In the secon! half of our century, as the a""aratus of s%e"ticism comes to e a""lie! not only to !ou ting the legitimacy of receive! social realities ut also to Questioning the very #ays in #hich #e come to %no# or construct reality, the normative "rogram of narrative W oth literary an! "o"ularY changes #ith it& $Trou le$ ecomes e"istemic' Julian Barnes #rites a stunning narrative on the e"isteme of dlau ert(s "ers"ectivalism, dlau ert(s Parrotq or Italo Calvino "ro!uces a novel, If on a [inter(s Night a Traveller, in #hich the issue is #hat is te)t an! #hat conte)tq an! theories of "oetics change accor!ingly& They, too, ta%e an $e"istemic turn,$ An! so To!orov sees the "oetics of narrative as inhering in its very language, in a reliance on the use of linguistic transformations that ren!er any an! all accounts of human action more su *unctive, less certain, an! su *ect #ithal to !ou t a out their construal& It is not sim"ly that $te)t$ ecomes !ominant ut that the #orl! to #hich it "utatively refers is, as it #ere, the creature of the te)t&mV The normativeness of narrative, in a #or!, is not historically or culturally terminal& Its form changes #ith the "reoccu"ations of the age an! the circumstances surroun!ing its "ro!uction& Nor is it reQuire! of narrative, y the #ay, that the Trou le #ith #hich it !eals e resolve!& Narrative, I elieve, is !esigne! to contain uncanniness rather than to resolve it& It !oes not have to come out on the $right si!e&$ [hat dran% ]ermo!e calls the $consoling "lot$ is not the comfort of a ha""y en!ing ut the com"rehension of "light that, y eing ma!e inter"reta le, ecomes eara le&mX X& Conte)t sensitivity an! negotia ility& This is a to"ic #hose com"le)ities #e have alrea!y visite! in an earlier !iscussion of $hermeneutic comcml& See ]enneth Bur%e, A Rrammar of \otives WUXnZq Ber%eley, UXrXY& See, for e)am"le, The Rea!er in the Te)t' Essays on Au!ience an! Inter"retation, e!& Susan Suleiman an! Inge Crosman WPrinceton, N& J&, UXSkY& dran% ]ermo!e, The Sense of an En!ing' Stu!ies in the Theory of diction WO)for!, UXrlY, "& mU& See also his !iscussion of this "oint in $Secrets an! Narrative SeQuence,$ in On Narrative&

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

Ul

"osa ility$ an! the inter"reta ility of narrative& In consi!ering conte)t, the familiar issues of narrative intention an! of ac%groun! %no#le!ge arise again& [ith res"ect to the first of these, much of literary theory has a an!one! Coleri!ge(s !ictum that the rea!er shoul! sus"en! !is elief an! stan!, as it #ere, na%e! efore the te)t& To!ay #e have rea!erc res"onse theory an! oo%s entitle! The Rea!er in the Te)t&nk In!ee!, the "revailing vie# is that the notion of totally sus"en!ing !is elief is at est an i!ealiSation of the rea!er an!, at #orst, a !istortion of #hat the "rocess of narrative com"rehension involves& Inevita ly, #e assimilate narrative on our o#n terms, ho#ever much Win [olfgang Iser(s accountY #e treat the occasion of a narrative recital as a s"ecialiSe! s"eech act&nU [e inevita ly ta%e the teller(s intentions into account an! !o so in terms of our ac%groun! %no#le!ge Wan!, in!ee!, in the light of our "resu""ositions a out the teller(s ac%groun! %no#le!geY& I have a strong hunch, #hich may at first seem counterintuitive, that it is this very conte)t sensitivity that ma%es narrative !iscourse in every!ay life such a via le instrument for cultural negotiation& hou tell your version, I tell mine, an! #e rarely nee! legal confrontation to settle the !ifference& Princi"les of charity an! "resum"tions of relevance are alance! against "rinci"les of sufficient ignorance an! sufficient !ou t to a !egree one #oul! not e)"ect #here criteria of consistency an! verification "revaile!& [e seem to e a le to ta%e com"eting versions of a story #ith a "ercs"ectival grain of salt, much more so than in the case of arguments or "roofs& Ju!y punn(s remar%a le oo% on the eginning of social un!erstan!ing in chil!ren ma%es it "lain that this ty"e of negotiation of !ifferent narrative versions starts early an! is !ee"ly im e!!e! in such "ractical social actions as the offering of e)cuses, not merely in storytelling "er se&nZ I thin% it is "recisely this inter"lay of "ers"ectives in arriving at $narrative truth$ that has le! "hiloso"hers li%e Richar! Rorty to a an!on univocally verificationist vie#s of truth in favor of "ragmatic ones&nm Nor is it sur"rising that anthro"ologists have increasingly turne! a#ay from "ositivist !escri"tions of cultures to#ar! an inter"retive one in #hich not o *ective categories ut $meanings$ are sought for, not meanings im"ose! e) hy"octhesi y an outsi!er, the anthro"ologist, ut ones arrive! at y in!igenous "artici"ants immerse! in the culture(s o#n "rocesses for negotiating meaning&nn See [olfgang Iser, Pros"ecting' drom Rea!er Res"onse to eiterary Anthro"ology WBaltic more, UXVXY, an! The Rea!er in the Te)t& See Iser, The Im"lie! Rea!er WBaltimore, UXlnY, See Ju!y punn, The Beginnings of Social in!erstan!ing WCam ri!ge, \ass&& UXVVY& See Richar! Rorty, Philoso"hy an! the \irror of Nature WPrinceton, N& J&, UXlXY& See also Taylor, Sources of the Self' The \a%ing of the \o!ern I!entity WCam ri!ge, \ass& UXVXY& See "articularly ReertS(s essay on $thic% inter"retation$ in his eocal ]no#le!ge& dor a sam"ling of vie#s on this a""roach to culture, see also Inter"retive Social Science, e!&

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

On this vie#, it is the very conte)t !e"en!ence of narrative accounts that "ermits cultural negotiation #hich, #hen successful, ma%es "ossi le such coherence an! inter!e"en!ence as a culture can achieve& Uk& Narrative accrual& fo# !o #e co le stories together to ma%e them into a #hole of some sortb Sciences achieve their accrual y !erivation from general "rinci"les, y relating "articular fin!ings to central "ara!igms, y couching em"irical fin!ings in a form that ma%es them su suma le un!er altering "ara!igms, an! y countless other "roce!ures for ma%ing science, as the saying goes, $cumulative&$ This is vastly ai!e!, of course, y "roce!ures for assuring verification, though, as #e %no#, verificationist criteria have limite! a""lica ility #here human intentional states are concerne!, #hich leaves "sychology rather on the fringe& Narrative accrual is not foun!ational in the scientist(s sense& het narratives !o accrue, an!, as anthro"ologists insist, the accruals eventually create something variously calle! a $culture$ or a $history$ or, more loosely, a $tra!ition&$ Even our o#n homely accounts of ha""enings in our o#n lives are eventually converte! into more or less coherent auto iograc "hies centere! aroun! a Self acting more or less "ur"osefully in a social #orl!&tg damilies similarly create a cor"us of connecte! an! share! tales an! Elinor Ochs(s stu!ies in "rogress on family !innercta le tal% egin to she! light on ho# this is accom"lishe!&nr Institutions, too, as #e %no# from the innovative #or% of Eric fo s a#m, $invent$ tra!itions out of "reviously or!inary ha""enings an! then en!o# them #ith "rivilege! stactus,nl An! there are "rinci"les of *uris"ru!ence, li%e stare !ecisis, that guarantee a tra!ition y assuring that once a $case$ has een inter"rete! in one #ay, future cases that are $similar$ shall e inter"rete! an! !eci!e! eQuivalently& Insofar as the la# insists on such accrual of cases as $"rece!ents,$ an! insofar as $cases$ are narratives, the legal system im"oses an or!erly "rocess of narrative accrual& There has een sur"risingly little #or% !one on this fascinating su *ect, although there are stirrings among anthro"ologists Winfluence! "rinci"ally y Cliffor! ReertSY an! among historiogra"hers W"ro!!e! y \ichel doucault(s groun!c rea%ing Archeology of ]no#le!geY&nV [hat %in!s Ra ino# an! Sullivan, an! Cultural Psychology& See, for e)am"le, Bruner, Acts of \eaning, cha"& n& I am greatly in!e te! to Elinor Ochs for letting a grou" of us into an informal sem inar at the iniversity of California, eos Angeles, #inter term UXXk, to vie# her ta"es of these sessions an! share her vie#s on the "rocesses involve!& See The Invention of Tra!ition, e!& Eric fo s a#m an! Terence Ranger WCam ri!ge, UXVmY& See ReertS, [or%s an! eives' The Anthro"ologist as Author WStanfor!, Calif&, UXVVYq James Cliffor!, The Pre!icament of Culture' T#entiethcCentury Ethnogra"hy, eiterature, an! Art WCam ri!ge, \ass&, UXVVYq an! \ichel doucault, The Archeology of ]no#le!ge, trans& A& \& Sheri!an Smith WNe# hor%, UXlZY&

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

UX

of strategies might gui!e the accrual of narratives into larger scale cultures or tra!itions or $#orl! versions$b Surely one of them must e through the im"osition of ogus historicalc causal entailment' for e)am"le, the assassination of Arch!u%e der!inan! is seen as $causing$ the out rea% of the dirst [orl! [ar, or Po"e eeo Ill(s coronation of Charlemagne as foly Roman Em"eror on Christmas pay in Vkk is offere! as $a first ste" on the #ay to#ar!$ or as a "recursor of the enactment of the Euro"ean Community in UXXZ& There is a vast literature of caution against such sim"licities y oth "hiloso"hers an! historians, ut it has not in the least !iminishe! our "assion for converting "ost hoc into "ro"ter hoc& Another strategy might e calle!, for lac% of a etter e)"ression, coherence y contem"oraneity' the elief that things ha""ening at the same time must e connecte!& I ma!e the #ry !iscovery, #riting my o#n intellectual auto iogra"hy several years ago, that once I ha! !iscovere! in the Ne# hor% Times In!e) #hat else ha! een ha""ening at the time of some "ersonal event, I coul! scarcely resist connecting the lot into one coherent #holeTconnecting, not su suming, not creating historicalccausal entailcments, ut #in!ing it into story& \y first scientific "a"er Won maturing se)ual rece"tivity in the female ratY, for e)am"le, #as "u lishe! a out the time Cham erlain ha! een !u"e! y fitler at \unich& \y original story efore consulting the Times In!e) #as vaguely a out a nineteencyearcol!(s first !iscovery, rather li%e a Bil!ungsroman& The "ostcIn!e) story, #ith \unich no# inclu!e!, #as an e)ercise in irony' young Nero fi!!ling #ith rats #hile Rome urne!s An! y the same com"elling "rocess, #e invent the par% Ages, ma%ing everything all of a "iece until, finally, the !iversity ecomes too great an! then #e invent the Renaissance& Once share! culturallyT!istri ute! in the sense !iscusse! earlierT narrative accruals achieve, li%e Emile pur%heim(s collective re"resentation, $e)teriority$ an! the "o#er of constraint&nX The par% Ages come to e)ist, an! #e come to cluc% #ith #on!er at the $e)ce"tionality$ of any nontra!itional "hiloso"her or !eviant theologian #ho live! in its sha!o#s& I am tol! that the e)cPresi!ent an! Nancy Reagan sent a letter of sym"athy to a nationally %no#n soa" o"era character #ho ha! *ust gone lin!T not the actor, ut the character& But that is not unusual' culture al#ays reconstitutes itself y s#allo#ing its o#n narrative tailTputch oys #ith fingers in the !i%e, Colum us ChristianiSing In!ians, the ueen(s honors list, the Euro"hilia that !ates from Charlemagne& [hat creates a culture, surely, must e a $local$ ca"acity for accruing stories of ha""enings of the "ast into some sort of !iachronic structure nX& See Emile pur%heim, The Elementary dorms of the Religious eife, trans& Jose"h [ar! S#ain WUXUgq Ne# hor%, UXrgY& dor a more "sychological account of this "rocess, referre! to y the author as $ontic !um"ing,$ see del!man, $Thought from eanguage' The einguistic Construction of Cognitive Re"resentations,$ in \a%ing Sense' The Chil!(s Construction of the [orl!, e!& Bruner an! felen faste WNe# hor%, UXVlY, ""& UmUcnr&

Zk

Jerome Bruner

The Narrative Construction of Reality

that "ermits a continuity into the "resentTin short, to construct a history, a tra!ition, a legal system, instruments assuring historical continuity if not legitimacy& I #ant to en! my list of narrative "ro"erties on this rather $o vious$ "oint for a "articular reason& The "er"etual construction an! reconstruction of the "ast "rovi!e "recisely the forms of canonicity that "ermit us to recogniSe #hen a reach has occurre! an! ho# it might e inter"rete!& The "hiloso"her [& T& Stace "ro"ose! t#o "hiloso"hical generations ago that the only recourse #e have against soli"sism Wthe unassaila le vie# that argues that #e cannot "rove the e)istence of a real #orl!, since all #e can %no# is our o#n e)"erienceY is that human min!s are ali%e an!, more im"ortant, that they $la or in common together&$gk One of the "rinci"al #ays in #hich #e #or% $mentally$ in common, I #oul! #ant to argue, is y the "rocess of *oint narrative accrual& Even our in!ivi!ual auto iogra"hies, as I have argue! else#here, !e"en! on eing "lace! #ithin a continuity "rovi!e! y a constructe! an! share! social hisc tory in #hich #e locate our Selves an! our in!ivi!ual continuities&gU It is a sense of elonging to this canonical "ast that "ermits us to form our o#n narratives of !eviation #hile maintaining com"licity #ith the canon& Perha"s Stace #as too concerne! #ith meta"hysics #hen he invo%e! this "rocess as a !efense against soli"sism& [e #oul! more li%ely say to!ay that it must surely e a ma*or "ro"hylactic against alienation& eet me return no# to the original "remiseTthat there are s"ecific !omains of human %no#le!ge an! s%ill an! that they are su""orte! an! organiSe! y cultural tool %its& If #e acce"t this vie#, a first conclusion #oul! e that in un!erstan!ing the nature an! gro#th of min! in any setting, #e cannot ta%e as our unit of analysis the isolate! in!ivi!ual o"erating $insi!e his or her o#n s%in$ in a cultural vacuum& Rather, #e must acce"t the vie# that the human min! cannot e)"ress its nascent "o#ers #ithout the ena lement of the sym olic systems of culture& [hile many of these systems are relatively autonomous in a given cultureTthe s%ills of shamanism, of s"ecialiSe! tra!es, an! the li%eTsome relate to !omains of s%ill that must e share! y virtually all mem ers of a culture if the culture is to e effective& The !ivision of la or #ithin a society goes only so far& Every o!y #ithin a culture must in some measure, for e)am"le, e a le to enter into the e)change of the linguistic community, even grante! that ,this community may e !ivi!e! y i!iolects an! registers& Another !omain that must e #i!ely Wthough roughlyY share! for a culture to o"erate #ith reQuisite effectiveness is the !omain of social eliefs an! Encyclo"e!ia of Philoso"hy, s&v& $[alter Terence Stace&$ See Bruner, Acts of \eaning, cha"& n&

Critical InQuiry

Autumn UXXU

ZU

"roce!uresT#hat #e thin% "eo"le are li%e an! ho# they must get on #ith each other, #hat else#here I have calle! fol% "sychology an! #hat farol! Rarfin%el has calle! ethnosociology&gZ These are !omains that are, in the main, organiSe! narratively& [hat I have trie! to !o in this "a"er is to !escri e some of the "ro"erties of a #orl! of $reality$ constructe! accor!ing to narrative "rinci"les& In !oing so, I have gone ac% an! forth et#een !escri ing narrative mental $"o#ers$ an! the sym olic systems of narrative !iscourse that ma%e the e)"ression of these "o#ers "ossi le& It is only a eginning& \y o *ective has een merely to lay out the groun! "lan of narrative realities& The !aunting tas%c that remains no# is to sho# in !etail ho#, in "articular instances, narrative organiSes the structure of human e)"erienceTho#, in a #or!, $life$ comes to imitate $art$ an! vice versa& gZ& See farol! Rarfin%el&Sft#fthr in Ethnometho!ology WEngte#oo! Cliffs, N&J&, UXrlY&