Slackers Against Narrativity

"Slacker does not follow a traditional narrative structure. It follows 100 characters around the UT Austin area in a way that seems completely random. There is no protagonist, no story, no thread linking the individual events. Yet, somehow, it is a completely coherent and engaging movie that sparks as many reflections as the number of scenes it has."

"Galen Strawson, in his paper "Against Narrativity" (2004), says that narrativity has become "intensively fashionable in a wide variety of disciplines including philosophy, psychology, theology, anthropology, sociology, political theory, literary studies, religious studies, psychotherapy, and even medicine." Narrativity, loosely defined, is the idea that human beings construct stories about their own lives. Strawson then makes a distinction between a "psychological Narrative thesis" and an "ethical Narrativity thesis.""

"The psychological theory is just a simple claim about how "human beings experience their lives," that is, that they create narratives of their own lives. The "ethical Narrative thesis," makes a further claim: it says that this is not only a natural tendency of human beings, but also a good thing. In fact, this thesis claims that narrativity is essential to a life well lived. Strawson will argue that this is not necessarily so."

Slacker (1990) is Richard Linklater's first larger-scale production and abandons traditional narrative structure. The film follows about 100 characters around the UT Austin area in a way that appears random, with no protagonist, no story, and no thread linking events, yet it remains coherent, engaging, and thought-provoking. Narrativity has become intensively fashionable across many disciplines and is broadly the tendency of human beings to construct stories about their lives. A distinction is drawn between a psychological Narrative thesis—claiming people experience their lives as narratives—and an ethical Narrativity thesis, which claims narrativity is essential to a well-lived life. The ethical claim is contested, and many narrative people tend to experience themselves diachronically.

Read at Apaonline