One thing people of all cultures and all times have in common is their need to tell stories. Through stories we give our experiences meaning, conferring a beginning, middle and end on something that previously existed only in the flow of time. Individuals use stories to define themselves and their relationship with their society. Societies, through parents and teachers, tell stories that teach children how to live and what to believe.
Religious leaders create systems of myth to bridge the gap between the known and the unknown.
Scientists construct elaborate theories to explain the processes of the natural world, constantly modifying those theories to accommodate new knowledge. Politicians use narratives to persuade the governed of the rightness of their leadership and the greatness of their ideas. By studying the stories people tell, then, we can learn something vital about them, about what they believe and why they believe it. Nothing can be more important than understanding a power so pervasive as this, so functional in our lives, and so filled with potential for perverting or furthering life. Story' or 'fiction' will be defined at the outset as simply a way of constructing reality, so our texts will include works of philosophy and political theory as well as literature.