Plot, society, and you

Calvina Izumi 13020117130037

Salma Lista 13020117130063

Anggi Wulandari 13020117130066

Seeing shape and meaning in an otherwise random sequence of events can give a sense of security, a sense that we are getting somewhere. Literary narrative can be seen as being about desire. Our desires are vicariously fulfilled through the character. Everybody needs some kind of personal narrative structure to give themselves a sense of identity and purpose. When somebody messes up, we sometimes say that they have 'lost the plot'.

Something similar goes for communities and institutions, example: National Histories (are plots constructed, highly selectively, from the data of the past). Different social systems favour some kind literary narrative over another, for example, like Pride and Prejudice, does not just indulge its hero and heroine, and provide wish-fulfilment for the individual readers, but also helps prop up a particular social ideology in which marriage is the fundamental structural principle (a lesson that is enchanced by the perceived objective authority of a third-person narrator).

Meanwhile, in the business world, there has been much talk about the importance of 'storytelling' through which a company may construct and identity more attractive that its competitors, or may offer persuasive narratives of how its products will enchance consumers lives. Literary fiction is not just a peculiar phenomenon nor is it mere entertainment. On the contrary, it seems to be the inevitable expression of real, immensely powerful, human needs and desires to be understood in both individual and collective terms.