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When the story’s over: narrative foreclosure and the possibility of self-renewal
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2002
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Narrative ForeclosureNarrative And IdentityContemporary CultureCultural StudiesNarrative RepresentationCultural OrderLiterary CriticismStorytelling (Game Design)SecuritisationNarrative Studies (Narrative Psychology)Narrative FateCultural HistoryStory ’ SLanguage StudiesHousingAccountingDecline WellFinanceLife WritingCreative NonfictionCultureNarrative EconomicsNarrative Studies (Comparative Literature)Storytelling (Indigenous Studies)BusinessCultural AnthropologyFinancial Crisis
To the degree that the culture in which one lives fails to provide adequate narrative resources for living one’s life meaningfully and productively, one’s life story may be experienced as effectively over, thereby leading to what is here termed narrative foreclosure. The phenomenon of ageing, in certain cultures at any rate, readily comes to mind in this context: with pre-scripted narratives of decline well in place, there often appears little choice among the aged but to reconcile themselves to their narrative fate. Drawing on selected texts, both fictional and non-fictional, it will be suggested that one of the primary means of altering this fate is by challenging the cultural order, refusing prevailing endings and fashioning alternative ones. Only then, upon ‘restarting’ one’s life story, will there emerge the possibility of self-renewal.