Narrative Humanism

Wyatt Moss-Wellington is Associate Professor in Media and Culture at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He is the author of Cognitive Film and Media Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2021), Narrative Humanism: Kindness and Complexity in Fiction and Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2019) and co-editor with Kim Wilkins of ReFocus: The Films of Spike Jonze (Edinburgh University Press, 2019). Moss-Wellington is also a progressive folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, and has released four studio albums: The Kinder We (2017), Sanitary Apocalypse (2014), Gen Y Irony Stole My Heart (2011) and The Supermarket and the Turncoat (2009).

• AcknowledgementsPART I: Humanist HermeneuticsIntroductionCH1: Reading the Human Drama in Film and Fiction　PART II: Social Narratology　CH2: Foundational Functions of FictionCH3: Affective Functions of FictionCH4: Connectedness and CharacterCH5: Mental Work and MemoryCH6: Ethics and Conclusions　PART III: Genre Case Study: The Suburban Ensemble Dramedy　CH7: An Introduction to the Millennial Suburban Ensemble FilmCH8: Discussions: Affect, Sociopolitics and the Ensemble Narrative　PART IV: Close Reading Case Study: Parenthood　CH9: Parenthood: A Humanistic Close ReadingAfterwordBibliography

The book’s unique approach brings biological and cultural explanations of human behavior together around hermeneutics, ethics, and the social functions of narrative. [...] In enacting the ethical attention to cinema that it promotes, Narrative Humanism makes an original and welcome contribution to fi lm-philosophy.