Curated Storytelling

This introductory chapter presents the main questions and arguments of the book. What is behind the contemporary boom of instrumental storytelling? Under what conditions do stories reproduce dominant relations of power, and when can they be subversive? The chapter looks at how storytelling has been treated within scholarly and popular works as a predetermined, universal category, and it posits an alternative approach toward studying stories based in the political economy of storytelling. It addresses the theoretical literature on narrative, class formation, neoliberalism, and subjectivity that will inform the book. The chapter gives an overview of the book, defines the key terms, and discusses the methodologies and research strategies employed.