ANTH 426

Credit: 3 OR 4 hours.

Narratives serve a central function in human life: at the most fundamental level, they enable us to make sense of a complex and chaotic world, but we also use narratives strategically to persuade, manipulate, create social bonds and social divisions, establish authority and deny responsibility. Narratives may be a human universal, but the rules of narrativity are intensely culturally specific. This course explores what narratives are and how they work, and considers a range of analytical techniques for studying them.