About

“The aim of this event was to contribute to the progress of interdisciplinary research on narrative by bringing together scholars frommany disciplines—including psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, linguistics, literary studies, feminist and gender studies, education, medicine, biology, law, and theology—to reflect on the issue of the sometimes contested epistemic powers of narrative.” — Read more about the conference in the Introduction to Narrative Works Special Section on Narrative Matters 2014 by Sylvie Patron and Brian Schiff.

Featured Topics

• What are the relations between narrative and knowledge?

• How do forms of knowledge inform and produce narratives?

• How do narratives communicate or produce knowledge? Which ones?

• What is the nature of narrative knowledge as opposed to other forms of knowledge (common or spontaneous knowledge of reality, scientific knowledge, philosophical ‘wisdom’)?

• Does narrative constitute a privileged mode of knowledge or is it an epistemologically opaque means of pursuing the truth?

Organizers

• Brian Schiff, The American University of Paris.

• Sylvie Patron, The University of Paris Diderot-Paris 7 

Outcomes

• In 2015 Narrative Works published articles drawing on the texts of the plenary lectures at this conference. Read the articles in Narrative Works Vol. 5 No. 1.

• The Paris Centre for Narrative Matters was established by Sylvie Patron and Brian Schiff following this conference.

• Life and Narrative, edited by Brian Schiff, A. Elizabeth McKim, and Sylvie Patron, was published in 2017.