Natwerk Designs

What should my thesis be regarding the importance of stories and the role of language in daily life?

I have been brainstorming some ideas that have come up really bad but I made a list of some of the keywords that could be associated... language (verbal, physical) stories truth nature culture life education creativity art imagination innovation semantic malfunction

Public Comments

1. Two things that I'm scratching the surface of at the moment, but that you might find interesting: "Rhetoric" (particularly of Science), and "Narrative Psychology". The first adopts a view that many things we do are based on argument and persuasion. Hence, scientific research is a method to argue that the world works in a particular way. Thus, science becomes "rhetorical" - all about communicating arguments to others. Politics is obviously rhetorical, but uses different methods (such as personal attributes) to persuade people what the "right" thing to do is. The second I don't know anything about, but definitely sounds relevant. I think the idea is that we see ourselves as actors in a story, or in many stories, and so our ideas about what we do, and what the outcomes should be, fit into these stories, or narratives. Whether life *is* actually like a book, in this sense, is a big question of course. But I think the idea has some merit, especially when we're so used now to comparing ourselves against "reality" TV, etc. One could say that things such as "Pop Idol" are actually just a narrative of struggle, emotion, conflict and overcoming (and, ultimately, victory). Which all ties in with the media of course. Are the media reporting facts? Or are the media creating stories which we then buy into? Is the news a report, or entertainment? I can't think of any links off the top of my head for this, but there must be plenty on it... Personal emotion sells stories. That's - perhaps - some kind of inspiration. I guess it doesn't particularly help with the thesis title, but it might offer some narrower focus. Try brainstorming some *examples* of "stories" in real life, rather than just abstract words that might be related. (What is "art", for example?) What things are "dramatic" in day-to-day life? What do people get upset, or happy over - especially regarding issues they wouldn't generally care about? Often there's a story in there somewhere that they've latched onto. Good luck...