Seeking the Re-enchantment of The World

A reflection on ‘The Crisis of Narration’ by Byung-Chul Han, in which “Han contends that genuine narratives inscribe the world with meaning in a ‘close network of relations’, where ‘nothing remains isolated’ and ‘everything remains meaningful.’ His provocation is that narratives used to ‘validate the interests of corporate entities and demand our submission’ – usually by exploiting individualistic ideologies and appealing to the idea of self-expression – are not really narratives at all. They are, rather, something he calls ‘storyselling’…(which) cannot perform narration’s important task of imagining the future… The greatest threat to capitalist storyselling is the formation of genuine narrative communities.” This coverage includes a critique of Han’s perspective, which seems to miss the chance to draw on queer, indigenous and other perspectives. Also see.