Rethinking Narrative as Representation of Subjective Possibilities

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Associate professor of Persian language and literature, Department of Persian language and literature, Faculty of humanities, university if Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

10.22108/mph.2025.145398.1640

Abstract

This study offers a critical and comparative rereading of Paul Ricoeur’s theory of narrative as a representation of human action within the context of literature. Central to this rereading is the conceptual model of the “fivefold orientation of the subject,” which includes orientation toward the self, the other, the material world, the Big Other, and language. Inspired by traditions of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and discourse analysis, this model provides a framework for understanding the multilayered and dialectical nature of subjectivity in narrative. The article argues that narrative is not a neutral reflection of action, but an active and subjective mechanism for reconstructing the self—a process in which language, power, structure, history, ideology, memory, the body, and social institutions are all simultaneously at work. From this perspective, the subject in narrative is both the creator of meaning and a product of discourses. The study concludes by briefly examining the theoretical implications of this approach for ideology critique and rethinking the autonomy of the subject.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Metaphysics

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 08 November 2025

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History

  • Receive Date: 23 May 2025
  • Revise Date: 04 November 2025
  • Accept Date: 08 November 2025

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