The problem of representation has persisted since antiquity. Literature had long opposed the writer's ability to tell a story on one side, and to represent reality accurately on the other. The twentieth century has shown that both are concurrently achievable and modern literature, in particular the novel, is the product of the confluence of these two ideas.
An essay that explored how narrative has developed the capacity overcome this binary and to both tell a story and represent our experiences of reality would be a poignant contribution.
This is particularly pertinent in a cultural climate that continues to move away from homogenous conceptualisations of existence. In a cultural climate where language continues to lose authority it would be interesting to explore how language can adapt (as it always has) to overcome the severe destabilisation of what is (I use the term hesitantly) a Post-Truth world.
There are A LOT of ideas here, this could easily achieve PhD length given the scope! Which isn't a bad thing, I'd read it. To keep this article length though I'd keep the idea of 'The Possibilities of Narrative' as the focus and perhaps go into a couple of current narrative forms that meld your core concepts of literary narrative, on the one hand, and fidelity to representing reality on the other. Mixed-media ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) jump to mind. – JM4 years ago
Want to write about Literature or other art forms?