On Stories

Drawing on the work of James Joyce, the story of Sigmund Freud's 'Dora' and the case of Oscar Schindler, Richard Kearney skilfully illuminates how stories are deep at work in fictional writing, autobiography and psychoanalysis and above all, in attempts to talk of the "self".

He also considers the stories of nations and how these may affect the way a national identity can emerge from stories.

He looks at the stories of Romulus and Remus in the founding of Rome, the hidden agenda of stories in the antagonism between Britain and Ireland and how stories of alienation in film such as Aliens and Men in Black reveal often disturbing narratives at work in projections of North American national identity.

Throughout On Stories stresses that far from heralding the demise of the story, the digital and supposedly 'postmodern' era opens up powerful new ways of thinking about narrative.

Imaginative and wide-ranging, On Stories is essential reading for anyone who wants to think clearly about the role of stories in our future.