Publication details

Storytelling as Playful Practice toward Social Cohesion and Overcoming the Fear of Death

Authors

SOMERVILLE Matthew

Year of publication 2022
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Ostrava Journal of English Philology
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web https://dokumenty.osu.cz/ff/journals/ostravajournal/14-1/OJEP_22-1_Somerville.pdf
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.15452/OJoEP.2022.14.0005
Keywords cognitive play; evolutionary literary theory; grief; storytelling; theory of mind
Description Approaching Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s 2015 film, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl through an evolutionary literary perspective draws attention to the adaptive advantages of fictional storytelling with respect to the film’s treatment of three key universals of human evolution: the propensity toward social integration; overcoming one’s fear of death and dealing with grief; and transcending the emotional anxiety that accompanies the incomprehensible meaninglessness of a life that ends, inevitably, in death.
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