Description |
1 online resource (xvii, 171 pages) : illustrations. |
Physical Medium |
polychrome |
Description |
text file |
Series |
Frontiers of narrative
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Frontiers of narrative.
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Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Contents |
Scheherazade's stories and Pangloss's nose -- Stories for thinking -- The influence of anxiety -- Information anxiety -- The problem of other people -- Sex, lies, and phenotypes -- Deceiving ourselves and others. |
Summary |
"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," Joan Didion observed in The White Album. Why is this? Michael Austin asks, in Useful Fictions. Why, in particular, are human beings, whose very survival depends on obtaining true information, so drawn to fictional narratives? After all, virtually every human culture reveres some form of storytelling. Might there be an evolutionary reason behind our species' need for stories? |
Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
Subject |
Fiction -- History and criticism -- Theory, etc.
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Fiction. |
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Fiction -- Psychological aspects.
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Fiction -- Psychological aspects. |
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Fiction -- Appreciation.
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Fiction -- Appreciation. |
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Evolution in literature.
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Evolution in literature. |
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Literature -- Philosophy.
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Literature -- Philosophy. |
Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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Other Form: |
Print version: Austin, Michael, 1966- Useful fictions. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, ©2010 (DLC) 2010001424 |
ISBN |
0803232977 (electronic book) |
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9780803232976 (electronic book) |
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1283050811 |
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9781283050814 |
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9780803230262 (cloth ; alkaline paper) |
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0803230265 (cloth ; alkaline paper) |
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