Mind the Narratives: Towards a Cultural Narratology of Attention
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Sibylle Baumbach
Abstract
Taking its cue from current discourses on anxieties of (in)attention, and from the connections between attention, culture, and narrative, this essay introduces the conceptual and methodological framework for a cultural narratology of attention. As I argue, selective attention is not only a biological necessity: it also guides the production and reception of literary texts, influences the cultural narratives we live by, drives the development of (new) genres, and gives rise to what I call ‘attention narratives’. Focusing on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, this essay shows how these ‘attention narratives’ connect with cultural anxieties of attention and distraction, driven mainly by technological advancements, while challenging readers’ attentional capacities. They do so by creating moments of ‘inattentional blindness’, which help increase readers’ awareness of the mechanisms of attention, while exposing cultural attention narratives that have shaped and continue to shape our perception. Given the central role of attention in cultures and narratives, there is a strong need for a cultural narratology of attention that bridges cognitive psychology, cultural studies, and literary studies. This essay offers the foundation for such an approach.
Abstract
Taking its cue from current discourses on anxieties of (in)attention, and from the connections between attention, culture, and narrative, this essay introduces the conceptual and methodological framework for a cultural narratology of attention. As I argue, selective attention is not only a biological necessity: it also guides the production and reception of literary texts, influences the cultural narratives we live by, drives the development of (new) genres, and gives rise to what I call ‘attention narratives’. Focusing on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, this essay shows how these ‘attention narratives’ connect with cultural anxieties of attention and distraction, driven mainly by technological advancements, while challenging readers’ attentional capacities. They do so by creating moments of ‘inattentional blindness’, which help increase readers’ awareness of the mechanisms of attention, while exposing cultural attention narratives that have shaped and continue to shape our perception. Given the central role of attention in cultures and narratives, there is a strong need for a cultural narratology of attention that bridges cognitive psychology, cultural studies, and literary studies. This essay offers the foundation for such an approach.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- A Tale of Two Concepts: Ansgar Nünning at Sixty 1
- Stories of Dangerous Life in the Post- Trauma Age: Toward a Cultural Narratology of Resilience 15
- Mind the Narratives: Towards a Cultural Narratology of Attention 37
- The End of the World (as We Know It)? – Cultural Ways of Worldmaking in Contemporary Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 57
- Plumbing Distant Spatiotemporal Scales: Towards an Econarratology of Planetary Memory in Narratives of the Global South 75
- Narrative Forms in the Age of the Anthropocene: Negotiating Human-Nonhuman Relations in Global South Novels 91
- Fact, Fiction, and Everything in-between: Strategies of Reader Activation in Postcolonial Graphic Narratives 109
- ‘It’s Not Our Opinion, It’s the Opinion of Our Roles’ – Fremdverstehen Revisited or: Where Foreign Language Education and Narratology Can Meet 129
- Narrative and Visual Resources of Culture in Contemporary Indigenous Children’s Books from Australia 149
- Troubling Justice: Narratives of Revenge 165
- Erin Burnett in Mali: Bardic Television and the Genealogy of Cultural Narratology 185
- New Media Narratives: Olivia Sudjic’s Sympathy and Identity in the Digital Age 199
- The ‘Death’ of the Unreliable Narrator: Toward a Functional History of Narrative Unreliability 215
- Odyssean Travels: The Migration of Narrative Form (Homer – Lamb – Joyce) 241
- A European Storyteller? Collective Narration in John Berger’s Into Their Labours 269
- Brexit as Cultural Performance: Towards a Narratology of Social Drama 293
- Contributors 321
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter i
- Contents v
- A Tale of Two Concepts: Ansgar Nünning at Sixty 1
- Stories of Dangerous Life in the Post- Trauma Age: Toward a Cultural Narratology of Resilience 15
- Mind the Narratives: Towards a Cultural Narratology of Attention 37
- The End of the World (as We Know It)? – Cultural Ways of Worldmaking in Contemporary Post-Apocalyptic Narratives 57
- Plumbing Distant Spatiotemporal Scales: Towards an Econarratology of Planetary Memory in Narratives of the Global South 75
- Narrative Forms in the Age of the Anthropocene: Negotiating Human-Nonhuman Relations in Global South Novels 91
- Fact, Fiction, and Everything in-between: Strategies of Reader Activation in Postcolonial Graphic Narratives 109
- ‘It’s Not Our Opinion, It’s the Opinion of Our Roles’ – Fremdverstehen Revisited or: Where Foreign Language Education and Narratology Can Meet 129
- Narrative and Visual Resources of Culture in Contemporary Indigenous Children’s Books from Australia 149
- Troubling Justice: Narratives of Revenge 165
- Erin Burnett in Mali: Bardic Television and the Genealogy of Cultural Narratology 185
- New Media Narratives: Olivia Sudjic’s Sympathy and Identity in the Digital Age 199
- The ‘Death’ of the Unreliable Narrator: Toward a Functional History of Narrative Unreliability 215
- Odyssean Travels: The Migration of Narrative Form (Homer – Lamb – Joyce) 241
- A European Storyteller? Collective Narration in John Berger’s Into Their Labours 269
- Brexit as Cultural Performance: Towards a Narratology of Social Drama 293
- Contributors 321
