Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy
Amy Shuman| Pub Date: | 2005 |
| Pages: | 200 pages |
| Dimensions: | 6 x 9 in. |
A critical assessment of collective memories, small world stories, and other allegories of everyday life
In Other People's Stories, Amy Shuman examines both narratives and narrative practice to examine the range of social relations embedded in stories and the complex ethical and social tensions that surround their telling. Drawing upon innovative research and contemporary theory, she describes what happens when one person's personal story becomes another person's source of inspiration, or when entitlement and empathy collide.
The resulting analyses in Other People's Stories are wonderfully diverse, integrating disciplines like sociolinguistics, communications, and folkloric studies to examine cultural groups including Latinos, Jews, African Americans, Italians, and Puerto Ricans. Shuman offers a nuanced but clear theoretical perspective derived from the Frankfurt school, life history research, narrative research, trauma studies, and cultural studies, and without compromising complexity, makes narrative inquiry accessible to a broad population.
Amy Shuman is a professor of English, adjunct professor of anthropology, and director of the Center for Folklore Studies at Ohio State University. She is the author of Storytelling Rights: The Uses of Oral and Written Texts by Urban Adolescents.
Subjects:
Literary Studies / Anthropology / Folklore / Sociology