The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture [Paperback]

Robert Fulford (Author)

Book Description

A lively, strikingly original look at the prevalence and endurance of stories in our lives and our culture.

When I hear a good story, I have an almost physical need to tell it. Of all the ways we communicate with one another the story has established itself as the most comfortable, the most versatile.

In The Triumph of Narrative, celebrated journalist and critic Robert Fulford explores narrative in all of its forms–from conversation, gossip, and urban legends to journalism, literature, film and television. Fulford vividly illustrates how storytelling formed the core of civilized life, how stories shape us as much as we shape stories, and why the human appetite for narrative persists.

Pursuing his subject across a landscape that includes The Birth of a Nation, Chinatown, television news, Twain, Hemingway and Nabokov, sex scandals, and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fulford brilliantly elucidates the timeless elements of narrative and articulates the intimate connections between stories and how we live and view reality. During an era when mass media and mass leisure have enabled us to spend much more time absorbing stories than any of our ancestors could, The Triumph of Narrative is an incisive look at one of our most fundamental, irreplaceable needs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

?Fulford is one of the few intellectuals as comfortable with Elmore Leonard as with Saul Bellow . . . a book large in soul, insight and importance. Every reader, and every student of narrative in all its splendor and vast multimedia reach, ought to have a copy.?
--the Daily News (Halifax)

From the Inside Flap

A lively, strikingly original look at the prevalence and endurance of stories in our lives and our culture.

When I hear a good story, I have an almost physical need to tell it. Of all the ways we communicate with one another the story has established itself as the most comfortable, the most versatile.

In The Triumph of Narrative, celebrated journalist and critic Robert Fulford explores narrative in all of its forms?from conversation, gossip, and urban legends to journalism, literature, film and television. Fulford vividly illustrates how storytelling formed the core of civilized life, how stories shape us as much as we shape stories, and why the human appetite for narrative persists.

Pursuing his subject across a landscape that includes The Birth of a Nation, Chinatown, television news, Twain, Hemingway and Nabokov, sex scandals, and The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fulford brilliantly elucidates the timeless elements of narrative and articulates the intimate connections between stories and how we live and view reality. During an era when mass media and mass leisure have enabled us to spend much more time absorbing stories than any of our ancestors could, The Triumph of Narrative is an incisive look at one of our most fundamental, irreplaceable needs.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st Broadway Books trade paperbook ed edition (February 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076790656X
• ISBN-13: 978-0767906562
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,103,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, thoughtful and accessible, September 10, 2001

By 

Jonathan Crowe (Shawville, QC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture (Paperback)

An engaging, lucid and thoughtful exploration of the human impulse to tell stories, from urban legends to postmodernist theory. If I were still doing the academic thing I would be assigning this little book to first- and second-year history students. Since the text of this book was given as a series of lectures on CBC radio, it's a very fluid and easy read. Definitely worthwhile.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tell Me a Story, September 14, 2001

By 

Jeremy Garber "urbanmenno" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture (Paperback)

Fulford's slim and easily readable book provides a fascinating glimpse into the way we use stories and narratives today. He points out how gossip is the new American storytelling, how postmodern linguistic theorists have their heads stuck in the sand, and gives startling evidence for how Ivanhoe influenced the culture of the Old South. I have great respect for authors who can provide complex theories in easily readable, humorous prose, and Fulford certainly fits that particular bill. Great for undergrads and anyone who likes a good read.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Parlez vous L'Academique?, February 23, 2003

By 

Karl (England, Great Britain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture (Paperback)

Both of the previous reviewers make the same point - which I heartily agree with - that this book would be a shoo-in with undergraduates.

But what about the rest of the world?

This is a fairly short book (152 pages in the main text) divided fairly evenly over five chapters. Nothing surprising there, since the book is the text of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 1999 Massey lectures delivered by Fulford. Unfortunately the "lecture" element comes across all too clearly, not to mention a certain amount of academic tunnel vision.

The author seems to have a thing about the Bible, which he imperiously dismisses several times, apparently ignoring its ongoing best-seller status.

Of course buying doesn't necessarily constitute believing, but then we are talking about 'storytelling' here, not about 'religious beliefs', and since the author subsequently makes such a big thing about the influence of Sir Walter Scott's novel "Ivanhoe", which has had such a (comparatively) short life span, and given the still ongoing battle in the US over the pro- and anti-evolutionist versions of the creation story, it seems strange, not to say biased, that the influence of the Bible is almost totally ignored.

Having said that, it's hard to know what the Mr Fulford is actually trying to achieve - other than filling five lecture slots.
The author's take on his subject suggests a man who goes to the zoo and looks at the bipeds and the quadrapeds, the carnivores and the herbivores but who, at the end of the day has no idea what an "elephant" looks like, and certainly hasn't the faintest idea whether it's the Indian elephants or the African elephants which have the larger ears.

Looking back, the book came across as being a collection of ideas, loosely strung together, but none of them developed to any significant degree. Despite the constantly academic tone of the book, the author can be engaging, even amusing, and I found the last two chapters "The Cracked Mirror of Modernity" and "Nostalgia, Knighthood, and the Circle of Dreams" thoroughly entertaining. But there's nothing about the contents of the book that really stands out in my mind only a short time after reading it.

I've given the book three stars simply on account of its entertainment value. But would I actually recommend it to anyone interested in the storytelling process?
I don't think so.

[And it's the African elephants which have the larger ears :) ]