ABSTRACT
Literary narratives typically show the place of the contingent in 'real lives': plots often hinge on chance or coincidence. If human experience is non-unified and identity accordingly uncertain or disunified, the political implications are disturbing for any understanding of politics and the political which rests on an underlying sense of, or need for, stability and order. The authenticity of the narrative is established, prima facie at least, by reference to the narrator's inability to tell the whole story. Narrative identity entails accounting for the construction and maintenance of identity within a particular framework the development of character by way of plotting. Novels formally contain contingency by way of emplotment, whereby isolated or chance events are placed within a developing network of further acts. For instance, in Leviathan, as the narrative unfolds, events are placed, reported by Sachs and interpreted by Aaron. Novels are particularly good at showing how contingency and purpose can be reconciled.
