Reading the Human Drama in Film and Fiction

This chapter goes into greater detail regarding the history of humanist thought and the way a narrative-based humanism might be exhumed from humanism’s philosophical lineage. It looks at the differences between Renaissance, canonical, and contemporary secular humanisms and the set of values that are conjured when a narrative is described as “humanistic.” It makes a case for humanism as both a style of storytelling, and a reading method, and thus establishes a “humanist hermeneutics” that will be carried through the remainder of the book. In so doing, this chapter sets up some core values of narrative humanism: it describes the difference between narrative and character complexity, the use of social science as a hermeneutic tool, the value of incomplete striving for understanding rather than grand theories that totalise people’s worlds, and finally describes some of the alternatives to humanism before concluding.

Discussions: Affect, Sociopolitics and the Ensemble Narrative

The second chapter of Part III moves to theorise some of the concerns raised in suburban ensemble cinema, looking at their class and spatial politics, use of sentimentality alongside oft-cruel humour, and their responses to concomitant developments in American politics across the 2000s.

Foundational Functions of Fiction

Part II is pivotal and substantial, demonstrating the uses of humanist inquiry at the level of narrative theory. It reveals how the concerns of narrative humanism can be situated alongside concepts developed in contemporary media theory, cognitive film studies, literary Darwinism, anthropology, social psychology and philosophy. This chapter introduces the concept of social narratology: a catalogue of the various social functions that story provides throughout our lives, and the way a humanist might use this knowledge to both understand and to create stories of ethical substance.

Introduction

A brief introduction describes the centrality of narrative in our lives, and across human history, before foregrounding the key themes of the book and indicating its structure. It covers some basic definitions of humanism before proceeding. One of the key features of humanism is an exploratory vulnerability that seeks to find new ways to describe the complexities of human interaction, both in stories and in scholarship around stories – the introduction explains how this book will provide resources for achieving open listening to human otherness.

Afterword

A brief postscript covers the current ethical and political implications of narrative humanism; it seeks to situate the theory in present global politics, and show how narrative humanism might guide us through some contemporary problems, in particular our responses the rise of the alt-right. It concludes with some suggestions for further research in these areas.

An Introduction to the Millennial Suburban Ensemble Film

Part III uses the hermeneutics and narrative theory established in the first half of the book to investigate a film genre that emerged at the end of the millennium: the suburban ensemble dramedy. The first chapter makes the case that suburban ensemble cinema comparatively amalgamates a number of conventions from a range of antecedent genres: infidelity dramas, family trauma dramas, the midlife crisis film and the coming-of-age film, along with works from other media, including socially conscious domestic TV sitcoms. It compares the history of suburban media depiction in American cinema with the lived realities of residentially dispersed contexts as they developed over the second half of the 20th century.

Mental Work and Memory

This chapter covers fantasy, imagination and play, the way stories can offer autotelic relief from purposeful cognitive work, the way we ogle at the invention of other humans through story, the comparison of our fantasy lives to our real lives, and story as humour, titillation and mateship display. It also covers the values of pattern recognition, memory and symbolism, and how we exercise these unique competences in narrative.

Parenthood: A Humanistic Close Reading

Part IV looks at a film text often described as “humanistic” using the analytical methods established throughout the book. This chapter describes how Parenthood’s particular domestic realism offered a precursor to later suburban ensemble pictures, before breaking down the politics, ethics and psychology of the film. The latter half of the chapter goes into more detail on the narrative’s modelling of familial psychology, but also the way the film form itself represents many of its key concerns: Parenthood’s structure provokes the very confounding emotional causality across extended networks that the film speaks to.

Ethics and Conclusions

This chapter ties up the social narratology of Part II by looking at some of the uses of narrative in generating ethical conclusions. It covers gossip, the “playing through” of responses to ethical dilemmas, and some of the basic “how to live” questions embedded in a majority of stories. It concludes with suggestions for future research based on this work.

Connectedness and Character

This chapter explores the way we feel connected to others through fiction, and what part character identification plays in this process. It looks at stories used to stave off loneliness, to establish ingroups and outgroups, to help us to feel intelligent or equipped with special knowledge, as well as the values of ritual and rite-of-passage. It also covers how we can articulate our selfhood through fictive characters and broadcast our self-schemas using the stories we like, as well as roleplay, ideology and status markers.