ABSTRACT
No longer showing how individual literary texts can illuminate particular societal debates, the chapter takes the discussion to another systematic level. It argues that, by studying the role of narratives in such processes, literary studies can importantly contribute to understanding how conflicts generally develop – and what role narratives might play in regulating them. Several distinct research fields are here synthesized: 1) research on societal conflicts and on the mechanisms of conflict regulation central to the functioning of pluralist societies; 2) research on path dependencies and especially more recent research on “narrative path dependency”; 3) mediation research and research in peace and conflict studies on how conflict narratives influence perceptions of and behaviour in a conflict; 4) research on the cognitive functions of plot patterns, cognitive models and scripts; and 5) narratological research on conflict narratives. While peace and conflict research has shown that adherence to specific conflict narratives influences actors’ attitudes towards a conflict, the way in which narratives about a conflict shape the behaviour of actors in the conflict remains understudied. Narratology can thus help understand how conflict narratives either “naturalize” enmity and predispose actors towards prolonging the conflict or how they can make reconciliation appear a plausible option.
