Narrating Resilience, Achieving Happiness? Toward a Cultural Narratology - Universidad de Salamanca

NARRATIVES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE

that emphasize the capacity of individuals to overcome extreme stress and trauma.

This epistemological approach to resilience emerges from mind-body disciplines, principally psychology, adopting a person-community conception of resilience. It focuses on the resources of individuals and communities to adapt to change and maintain their mental and behavioral health and wellness, all of which can arguably be considered as preconditions for happiness. In the realm of literature, psychological resilience consistently emerges from autobiographical and fictional life stories that delve in loss and traumatic events. Focusing on a selection of literary and cultural products, the researchers in this cluster offer a conceptual systematization of the categories of resilience and happiness their chosen works articulate. They also process the aesthetic forms and structures used for the representation of psychological resilience and (un)happiness.  Finally, they consider the ways in which these narratives serve as the tools that enable readers to enact resilience in the real world.

NARRATIVES OF SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE

that focus on the resilience of human and non-human ecological systems in interconnection.

In socio-ecological contexts resilience appears as a concerted response to the realities of the global risk society. This strand of resilience thinking emerges from the consideration of resilience in the context of biophysical environment-community interaction. It relies on three key premises: the interconnection and interdependence of social and ecological systems, their position at the interface of conservation and transformation, and the capacity of a given system for self-organization (O’Brien, “Resilience” 46). It typically engages with climate change, environmental crises, homeland security, economic and financial crises, or urban planning, and is discussed from multidisciplinar perspectives, including ecofeminism, postcolonial and Indigenous premises. In neoliberal circles, socio-ecological resilience has been affirmed as a desirable societal goal, a guiding principle, and a “cultural task,” providing a new perspective on processes of societal transformation in the wake of natural and man-made catastrophes. Evans and Reid even refer to it as a new “ethics of responsibility” which asks groups and individuals to come to terms with the many risks of our age and to actively engage in processes of preservation and regeneration (Basseler “Stories”, 23). The team members in this research cluster adopt a critical stance towards this neoliberal naturalization of trauma and disaster. They aim to approach social-ecological resilience from a cultural-narratological perspective to gain a deeper understanding of how storytelling shapes these real-life processes and problematizes the interconnected notions of resilience and happiness.