Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”
Hannah Arendt · Political philosophy · Modern · 1968
What does it mean?
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. A story shows what a life meant in the way action, once it is over, can be told. A definition would freeze the actor into a what, a type, which is the error. A rival reading hears a ban on analysis, as if any concept were a violence against stories. She analyses constantly. The error is a particular one, the substitution of a definition for the revealed meaning of a deed. Another reading turns the sentence into 'everyone has their truth'.
Did Hannah Arendt really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Arendt's English in the essay on Isak Dinesen in Men in Dark Times. Storytelling is contrasted with the error of pinning a life to a definition. The sentence is hers, not Dinesen's, though it is about what she thinks Dinesen knew.
Where it comes from
Men in Dark Times, 'Isak Dinesen'
Approximate date: 1968.
How to use it
An obituary, or a reference for someone leaving a school in Cardiff, can define them in two adjectives or tell what they did. She thinks the second reveals meaning the first kills. The sentence does not say adjectives are false. It says they are not a substitute for the story if what you wanted was the meaning of the action. A form that has only the boxes has already chosen the error.
A mindset reading
Meaning here is not a private glow. It appears between people when the story is told. That is why she can rank storytelling above definition without becoming a relativist about the events the story is responsible to.
Understand the philosophy
Men in Dark Times, 1968, collects essays on people who lived in dark public conditions. The Dinesen essay is the unexpected place for this aesthetic claim. It belongs with her account of action as self-disclosure, not with a creative-writing tip.
- meaning
- knowledge
- self
FAQ
What does it mean?
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. A story shows what a life meant in the way action, once it is over, can be told. A definition would freeze the actor into a what, a type, which is the error. A rival reading hears a ban on analysis, as if any concept were a violence against stories. She analyses constantly. The error is a particular one, the substitution of a definition for the revealed meaning of a deed. Another reading turns the sentence into 'everyone has their truth'.
Did Hannah Arendt really say this?
Well attested. Arendt's English in the essay on Isak Dinesen in Men in Dark Times. Storytelling is contrasted with the error of pinning a life to a definition. The sentence is hers, not Dinesen's, though it is about what she thinks Dinesen knew.
Which work is it in?
Men in Dark Times, 'Isak Dinesen' Approximate date: 1968.