The Role of Unexpected Events in Stories: J. Bruner’s and C. Feldman’s Florentine Seminar

This book stems primarily from the intention to make public the seminar  entitled "Narratives and Cultural Psychology" held by J. Bruner and C.  Feldman in May 2000 in Florence. This seminar represents the point of  view of these two authors, at an important moment in their scientific  and human careers, on two themes: narratives and interpretative  communities.

The central concept on which this book works is the  Aristotelian concept of peripeteia which, born in the world of art, is  developed by Bruner in the field of cognitive and cultural psychology  and by Feldman in the concept of interpretative community.

Thus  the first purpose of this book is to analyze the role and usefulness of  this concept in the study of the world of stories and culture

The  second aim of this book is to explain, clarify and comment on the  concept, the theoretical assumptions and the key words used by the two  authors, while also exploring the issues addressed. In this way, the  author wanted to reflect on what contribution this seminar offers today  to the theme of narratives and cultural psychology and what the future  prospects might be.

This book is aimed at students and scholars interested in exploring the role that stories play in human culture.