There is a large and growing literature on the psychological functions of narrative. It
turns out that narrative in many ways serves to constitute the mind, enabling and
structuring human cognition (perception, memory, understanding, and meaning) and
establishing our identity and sense of self.
Remembering
Narrative and memory are closely intertwined. A first point is simply that we just
remember stories better. Much of what stays in mind are stories. What we remember of
childhood, our first job, family vacations, or school sporting events are almost all stories.
It is clear that much of our memory is schematic, not literal. What is less recognized in
the literature on schemas, however, is the extent to which many of our schemas are
essentially narratives. One of the seminal papers for modern schema theory was
Rumelhardt’s “Notes on a Schema for Stories.”
Rumelhardt, however, was not so much
interested in the role of narration in schematization, as he was in codifying the rules for
story making. Most of the literature since has been focused on using his rather formal
and systemic approach to analyze other schemas. But perhaps Rumelhardt’s greatest
insight was to note that the schema of the story is essentially a code in which a great deal
of information can be stored in a single structure. The story, therefore, is an excellent
device for schematization about other things.
But the relationship between narrative and memory goes deeper still. As Bartlett first
demonstrated in 1932, memory turns out to be less an act of recall than an act of re-
What we seem most readily to retain is our “attitude” towards past events,
what might be thought of as their point or their meaning. When we remember we
reconstruct from the story that should have been.
As Mead put it, as we remember we
36
Rumelhardt, 1975.
37
Bartlett, 1932.
38
Kotre discusses the famous case of John Dean, key witness in the Watergate hearings, who remembered
so clearly and portrayed so vividly in his Congressional testimony the damning discussions he had had with
President Nixon in the Oval Office. But when, eventually, tapes of these conversations were made
available, Dean’s memory was shown to be quite faulty. Why the distortion? Because what Dean
remembered was the “meeting as it should have been.” Kotre, 1996, 51.
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Convention