Introduction

pp. 1-13

in: Tudor Balinisteanu, Violence, narrative and myth in Joyce and Yeats, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

I would like to begin by asking you to bring forth in your mind's eye the world you envision as the home of your future self at some distant point in time. You will have thus created a coherent narrative of images in which you are the main character. Think about whether your present self has already begun to melt into your future, fictional self. Which of the two is your true self? Is your future, fictional self, already guiding you to action in the present as you set out to make that desired world happen? If so, your vision is not dissimilar to the vision engendered by a social myth as conceived by Georges Sorel whose theories are central to my arguments in this book.