Abstract

Chapter 6 looks at the earliest forms of life stories, dating from the invention of writing in the third millennium B.C.E. We then follow the evolution of these stories over time. We may qualify them as imaginary, although they originate in what are often real lives but magnified into epics, myths, novels, and other narratives that nourish our minds. First, we discuss the notion of genre, which aims to define more precisely the different ways of inventing or transforming lives so as to express deeper reflections on the society and culture in which they take shape. We begin with the Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, who defined epic, tragedy, and comedy by their characteristics. The Middle Ages saw the appearance of a new genre: the novel. In our time, the focus has shifted away from the formal characteristics of genres to their underlying mental processes and the devices they use to bring readers to reflect on and live in their society. Here, we encounter the notion of “comprehension” proposed by hermeneutic philosophy as the opposite of “explanation.” To better understand this approach, we take a closer look at how three examples of the genres were introduced and used. First, the Epic of Gilgamesh, which enables us to understand Mesopotamian civilization; second, Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus, which give us an understanding of divine causality and human freedom among the Greeks; third, the romances on the life of Henri de Joyeuse, which give us an insight into Christian thought in seventeenth-century France. The chapter concludes with a fuller discussion of the notion of “comprehension.”