“The narrative that each person tells herself and others is a big part of how we construct our self-identities. It's one of the most important ways that we make sense of our past and present and understand our hopes for the future.” WayPersonsImportantSelfBigsPastIdentityNarrativeMake SenseOur PastConstructsPast And PresentSelf IdentityHope For The Future Author:Peg O'Connor
“What joins the Americans one to another is not a common ancestry, language or race, but a shared work of the imagination that looks forward to the making of a future, not backward to the insignia of the past. Their enterprise is underwritten by a Constitution that allows for the widest horizons of sight and the broadest range of expression, supports the liberties of the people as opposed to the ambitions of the state, and stands as premise for a narrative rather than plan for an invasion or a monument. The narrative was always plural; not one story, many stories.” PeopleLooksStatesStoriesAmericaPastLanguageImaginationCommonRaceLibertySupportPlansExpressionAmbitionSightConstitutionNarrativeRangeEnterpriseHorizonMonumentInvasionPremisesAncestry Author:Lewis H. Lapham
“Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society.” PastFatherInterestPowerfulHollywoodIntelligentSeekingCampaignsNarrativeVillainCover UpsBaneOffshoreHighly IntelligentObama CampaignPillaging Author:Chris Lehane
“The immersive stories of This Is Paradise are a lithe blend of formal invention and traditional narrative pleasures. As such they reflect Kristiana Kahakauwila's intimate but expansive vision of a Hawai'i forged from the collisions of past and present, here and there. Her protagonists are as richly distinctive as the pidgin they speak, and yet each struggles profoundly with identity-that negotiation between ourselves and the world, which is at once Hawaiian, American, universally and compellingly human.” WorldHumansStoriesPastSpeakPleasureVisionStruggleIdentityInventionTraditionalNarrativeIntimateParadiseFormalNegotiationHere And ThereDistinctiveProtagonistsPast And PresentCollisionForgedHawaiians Author:Peter Ho Davies