Sarah Dillon – författare

Storylistening makes the case for the urgent need to take stories seriously in order to improve public reasoning. Dillon and Craig provide a theory and practice for gathering narrative evidence that will complement and strengthen, not distort, other forms of evidence, including that from science.

Focusing on the cognitive and the collective, Dillon and Craig show how stories offer alternative points of view, create and cohere collective identities, function as narrative models, and play a crucial role in anticipation. They explore these four functions in areas of public reasoning where decisions are strongly influenced by contentious knowledge and powerful imaginings: climate change, artificial intelligence, the economy, and nuclear weapons and power. Vivid performative readings of stories from The Ballad of Tam-Lin to The Terminator demonstrate the insights that storylistening can bring and the ways it might be practised.

The book provokes a reimagining of what a public humanities might look like, and shows how the structures and practices of public reasoning can evolve to better incorporate narrative evidence. Storylistening aims to create the conditions in which the important task of listening to stories is possible, expected, and becomes endemic.

Taking the reader through complex ideas from different disciplines in ways that do not require any prior knowledge, this book is an essential read for policymakers, political scientists, students of literary studies, and anyone interested in the public humanities and the value, importance, and operation of narratives.

Storylistening makes the case for the urgent need to take stories seriously in order to improve public reasoning. Dillon and Craig provide a theory and practice for gathering narrative evidence that will complement and strengthen, not distort, other forms of evidence, including that from science.

Focusing on the cognitive and the collective, Dillon and Craig show how stories offer alternative points of view, create and cohere collective identities, function as narrative models, and play a crucial role in anticipation. They explore these four functions in areas of public reasoning where decisions are strongly influenced by contentious knowledge and powerful imaginings: climate change, artificial intelligence, the economy, and nuclear weapons and power. Vivid performative readings of stories from The Ballad of Tam-Lin to The Terminator demonstrate the insights that storylistening can bring and the ways it might be practised.

The book provokes a reimagining of what a public humanities might look like, and shows how the structures and practices of public reasoning can evolve to better incorporate narrative evidence. Storylistening aims to create the conditions in which the important task of listening to stories is possible, expected, and becomes endemic.

Taking the reader through complex ideas from different disciplines in ways that do not require any prior knowledge, this book is an essential read for policymakers, political scientists, students of literary studies, and anyone interested in the public humanities and the value, importance, and operation of narratives.

Literary detectives Sarah Dillon and Corin Throsby investigate the stories behind the stories of nine great novelsIn this engrossing series, Drs Sarah Dillon and Corin Throsby set off on a quest to discover how some of our most famous, best-loved books were written. What was happening in the author''s lives, and how did that influence the process of creation? Following the clues, they attempt to solve the mysteries of these great works of literature - uncovering a wealth of fascinating information along the way.Beginning with Great Expectations, Sarah asks why Dickens wrote it so quickly - in a mere 9 ½ months - and why he famously changed the ending right at the moment. She investigates why it took Jean Rhys 27 years to publish Wide Sargasso Sea, and reveals the story behind Jane Austen''s last completed novel, Persuasion, and its posthumous publication. We hear of James Joyce''s epic struggles to publish Dubliners - including battles with publishers, a fire at the printers and leaving Ireland for good - and trace the remarkable clandestine journey of EM Forster''s gay love story Maurice, passed hand to hand from Cambridge to America by men who risked prosecution for possessing it.Sarah also discovers the story behind RL Stevenson''s horror tale Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a work he claimed was inspired by a dream, and shows how adultery, revolution and exile played a part in the writing of Victor Hugo''s masterpiece Les Misérables. Next, Corin Throsby takes up the baton to divulge how Truman Capote met and befriended two psychopathic murderers to create the ''non-fiction novel'' that would launch the true crime genre: In Cold Blood. The final literary pursuit explores how William Golding''s Lord of the Flies was saved from the reject pile by lucky chance - and how it went on to become a modern classic. Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. ? 2021 BBC Studios Distribution LtdPresented by Sarah Dillon and Corin ThrosbyProduced by Sara Conkey and Miles WardeEdited by James CookReaders: Juliet John, Samuel West, Diana Quick, Jessica Raine, Damien Molony, Paul Chahidi, Aurélie Amblard and Matthew BissonWith guests including: Michael Slater, John Drew, Elaine Savory, Carole Angier, Diana Athill, Ruth Webb, Dr Kathryn Sutherland, Paula Byrne, Margaret Drabble, Timothy Young, David Norris, Terence Killeen, Wendy Moffatt, Philip Gardner, Peter Parker, Sir Christopher Frayling, Claire Harman, Jeremy Hodges, Professor Richard Dury, Jean-Marc Hovasse, Louis Hegarty Lovett, Vincent Gille, Florence Naugrette, Thomas Fahy, Brenda Currin, Ed Pilkington, James Linville, Ralph Voss, Ebs Burnough and Lawrence ElmanFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 10 January 2016-22 March 2020