The Power of Narrative: Self-Knowledge, Self-Narrative and Hupomnemata

Telling a story changes the way we think about an event and makes us understand it differently. The very power of storytelling lies in this process of ＂making understanding＂. We give meaning to what is happening on the basis of what we have understood about what was in the past or what could be in the future. The same is true when we tell our own story: we give different meanings to the events of our own lives in the various accounts we give of them. This process was spotted early on by the Stoic philosophers, who used it in certain ＂techniques of the self＂ (Michel Foucault) that they called ＂hupomnemata＂. The analysis of this process is at the heart of this book, which lies between philosophy, literature and historical reflection. How does meditating on one’s history help to change one’s own attitudes? And what does the fact that it is possible to change oneself by looking back at oneself tell us about what man is in general? Is this a universal fact, or is it limited to one or a few cultures?

Pascal Nouvel, University of Tours, Tours, France.