NOT THE ONLY STORY: NARRATIVE, MEMORY, AND SELF-BECOMING IN JULIAN BARNES’ NOVEL Cover Image

NOT THE ONLY STORY: NARRATIVE, MEMORY, AND SELF-BECOMING IN JULIAN BARNES’ NOVEL
NOT THE ONLY STORY: NARRATIVE, MEMORY, AND SELF-BECOMING IN JULIAN BARNES’ NOVEL

Author(s): Diana Melnic, Vlad Melnic
Subject(s): British Literature
Published by: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai
Keywords: The Only Story; Julian Barnes; Paul Ricoeur; memory; storytelling; self-becoming; identity;

Summary/Abstract: Not the Only Story: Narrative, Memory and Self-becoming in Julian Barnes’ Novel. Julian Barnes’s The Only Story depicts the affair of the narrator, Paul, with an older, married woman, Susan. Yet while the obvious subject matter may be trite, the writer’s treatment of it is noteworthy. More specifically, the present paper aims to explore the manner in which this story is remembered by the narrator. Using Paul Ricoeur’s work on the narrative self, we suggest that the protagonist does not wish to deliver an accurate account of the events that shaped his life, but rather he attempts to come to terms with the latter through storytelling. Thus, “the only story” is not necessarily that of Paul’s first love. It is, rather, the only story that matters to him, which must include all others and which he must tell in order to shape and understand his own process of becoming.

  • Issue Year: 66/2021
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 47-60
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English
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