Friday, January 29, 2010

what we know to be true

I have been reading works that are influenced by Jerome Bruner. His work at Harvard laid the foundation for Project Zero which works in the area of arts and cognition, and his name came up in conversation with a friend. One of the things I have mentioned in the blog before is that narrative takes many forms and that the work of a craftsman is to describe his or her universe. Our narration may take place in strokes of the plane creating texture rather than text. It may not be readily understood by those inexperienced or illiterate in the methods and motives of hands-on craftsmanship, yet to create is a narrative act, often more responsive, responsible, truthful and expressive than words alone.

Interestingly our hands-on narrative even more than written text is responsible for the warp and woof of human culture. Literacy of words and language is regarded as being of greater importance and intelligence than "literacy" of the expressive hand.

The Narrative Construction of Reality, by Jerome Bruner is an important paper published in Critical Inquiry, 1991.

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