Comparative Master Narratives and Global Peacebuilding
Start Date
10-2-2021 3:15 PM
End Date
10-2-2021 4:30 PM
Proposal Type
Presentation
Proposal Description
Story and narrative has long been a central part of the study of peace and conflict resolution, but interest in the area has become more pronounced over the past few years. Nevertheless, we know little about what kinds of stories there are to tell, how they fit together, and linkages exist to allow peacemakers to pivot among them. In this paper, I describe a simple structure for the analysis of stories, known as Root Narrative Theory, and show how it manifests in foundational cultural and religious texts around the world, i.e. in master narratives. Building on an examination of foundational texts from Chinese, Vedic, Abrahamic, African and American texts, this paper and the distinction it draws upon between root and master narrative provides interested peace and conflict scholars with a new way of seeing the conflicts they study which should help them to look for paths to persuasion and common ground for conflicting parties.
Comparative Master Narratives and Global Peacebuilding
Story and narrative has long been a central part of the study of peace and conflict resolution, but interest in the area has become more pronounced over the past few years. Nevertheless, we know little about what kinds of stories there are to tell, how they fit together, and linkages exist to allow peacemakers to pivot among them. In this paper, I describe a simple structure for the analysis of stories, known as Root Narrative Theory, and show how it manifests in foundational cultural and religious texts around the world, i.e. in master narratives. Building on an examination of foundational texts from Chinese, Vedic, Abrahamic, African and American texts, this paper and the distinction it draws upon between root and master narrative provides interested peace and conflict scholars with a new way of seeing the conflicts they study which should help them to look for paths to persuasion and common ground for conflicting parties.