Main description:

Our everyday lives are enmeshed in storytelling: the stories we tell about our memories, the people we know, and the world we inhabit; those we tell about our families and communities; and the narratives we encounter in books, movies, and television. Narrative structures how we view ourselves and everything around us.

In The Narrative Complexity of Ordinary Life, William L. Randall shows how concepts central to the study of narrative psychology-such as narrative development and the interrelation between narrative and identity, cognition, and development-are integral to everyday life. He makes the case that all people function as narrative psychologists by continually storying their lives in memory and imagination, as well as speculating on the stories that others may be living, a process that
Randall refers to as storyotyping.

Relying heavily on narrative, Randall draws from experiences in his own life to illustrate various concepts in narrative psychology. His inquiry leads him to the topics of gossip, rumor, and the narrative complexity of nostalgia. In doing so, he makes the case that all people function as narrative psychologists by continually storying - or, cementing - their lives in memory and imagination, a process Randall refers to as "storyotyping".

Contents:

Prologue

1. In the Beginning: The Story Behind the Book

2. Medium with Milk: Setting the Scene

3. The Story of My Life: Narrative as Metaphor

4. The Story of My Life II: Novelty, Identity, and Narrative

5. Hollyhocks and Hummingbirds: The Biographical Imperative

6. Friends and Lovers: Narrative in Relationship

7. The Tales that Bind: Narrative and Community

8. Cigar in the Night: Storying the Past

9. World without End: Story and Spirit

Epilogue
Appendix: Readings Between the Lines: A Bibliographic Note
References
Index