2009/02/01 by GREGORY CURRIE, Gregory Currie
Psychology · Arts and Humanities · #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Humor Studies and Applications #Narrative Theory and Analysis
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1540-6245.2008.01335.x
Homer's stories are populated with gods, heroes, Sirens, Cyclopes, and other things we do not believe in. Still, we find diversion and instruction in them; it would be eccentric to reject them on account of the falsity of their theology. Might great swathes of highly valued narrative in drama, the novel, and other forms be comparably mistaken, this time about the notion of a person's character? If they are, is this more troubling than Homer's spurious supernatural? I give an argument that defends the role of character in narrative as some-