This week in AP Literature, we have been discussing postmodernism and its relation to society. Our main focus this week was to grasp the underlying principles and ideas of the postmodern thinker Jean-Francois Lyotard. Some of his ideas consist of the following: conscious and unconscious minds, computer technology and science, and lastly, local and metanarratives. In today’s post, I would like to stress his ideas about narratives.
According to Lyotard, there are two types of narratives, metanarratives and local narratives. Metanarratives are “big stories, stories of mythic proportions – that claim to be able to account for, explain and subordinate all lesser, little, local narratives” (Powell 29). This also explains local narratives as well. If you did not catch that, read it again!! Well if this is still a little confusing to you, a local narrative is just a small part of a bigger story of metanarratives. Metanarratives have been used throughout our past and culture to help explain the unexplainable. For instance, Native Americans use these narratives through myths, helping explain the creation of man and natural phenomena. Long ago, they did not have the math or science to fully comprehend why there are such things as seasons of drought or floods, so they used myths to explain what seems to be unexplainable. On a side note, it also scared kids into believing that their bad behavior was the reason why the entire tribe was starving of hunger that year. They honestly did not have any idea to what was truly going on in the Earth’s crust or its atmosphere, so they created tales and myths to answer the dying question “why?”
This is also true with many religions. Most religions have one main source, the metanarrative, which contains many smaller stories, the local narratives, to explain their ideas of creation, morality, and life style. These smaller stories help illuminate the major idea, or central theme, of what is trying to be conveyed by the metanarrative. These narratives also give many people a meaning to life and how they live. As I mentioned before, religion also helps people answer the unmistakable question “why?” We base our lives on a central meaning whether or not we believe in a certain religion. Believe it or not, there is a bigger picture to life which all people live towards. They say that we people are all connected one way or another, spiritually. Well, this is it for now. I hope you all enjoyed the post! It is not as long as the others, so hopefully you did not get too bored. And here is the quote of the day…
“Each spiritual journey begins with a step forward — the moment when you realize that there’s more to life than you’ve been living.”
~ Vicky Thompson
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Andrew, very nice blog. I really liked how you related the idea and concept of narratives to a situation that has happened in our past. For instance when you said,"They [the indians] honestly did not have any idea to what was truly going on in the Earth’s crust or its atmosphere, so they created tales and myths to answer the dying question “why?” I truly agree with you on this.
ReplyDeletePeople would much rather have an answer to their questions that they cannot explain. So in reality, to keep the mind sane, people are destined to come up with their own theories on these unexplainable phenomena's. I mean, what is more mentally sound? Saying that something is occuring because,"that's the way it is"? Or coming up with a narrative (that may not be possible in reality)to explain the chaos? I'll tell you, the second one is what people are going to accept.
But yet, how can we criticize these people? For, in human nature, it is natural to expect answers to our problems. These answers just so happen to be a little bizarre.
Well, Andrew great job with the blog. I like the way you related the narrative with Native American's myths. Nice job doing that. Well, what you said about the reason myth came about was that they didn't know "why". Well that's very true to all cultures. I was glad that you mention it in the blog.
ReplyDeleteHere again I agree with you because the fact that narratives were made up to explain all these factors that occurred in the world. Then if not, there would have been lots of crazy things. Therefore, all those people back then just made up stories to cover up all misunderstanding. All they wanted was just an answer to please their mind. If not, maybe outrageous things would have occurred, and they did. Wars were fought over whom’s idea was right. Basically no one’s idea was right. Just how in the world could that be true, it just doesn’t make sense to me. What do you think about this? Should we just leave all those crazy nonsense things we learn about our religion? Does that solve everything or does it not? I don’t know myself. And we can’t judge them because we would of done the same thing if we were them.
Nice job. Always waiting to read that quote of yours in the end. So keep doing that.
Andrew i thought you did a really good job on this blog. I liked how you established the defnition of narratives and all their subtopics that was helpful in getting a further understanding in addition to the book. Moreover i really liked how you talked about the Native Americans and the ways they ulitized these narratives, i thought the ideas that you brought up such as "Long ago, they did not have the math or science to fully comprehend why there are such things as seasons of drought or floods, so they used myths to explain what seems to be unexplainable." It helps to show the fact that we are so techologically advanced now that we dont really need to make things up to explain the things that go on around us. so i thought that was a very crtitical idea. Moreover i thought it was funn how you brought up the ideas of myths for the behaving of kids its seem funny and it it, but that definitley could and probabley was a reaso for them to exist too. Finally i like the fact of how you tied in releigion, and especially of how you said that everyone has like a path or speific place they are trying to get to, that was really good. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a really good job with this blog Andrew. It really helped me understand Narratives a lot better and you did a good job of relating it to our society. Starting off with the definition of grand and local narratives helped to refresh my memories of Lyotard's ideas and helped me understand his ideas better. I also liked how you used Native Americans as an example of a culture that utilized narratives. I like how you explained why the native americans used narratives because "Long ago, they did not have the math or science to fully comprehend why there are such things as seasons of drought or floods, so they used myths to explain what seems to be unexplainable." I also liked how you talked about religion, and how you showed that we still use grand narratives in our society today
ReplyDelete