On the concept of narrative: An epistemological approach based on the thought of Francesca Gargallo

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on the epistemological potential of the concept of narrative based on the contributions of the philosopher, historian of ideas, and writer Francesca Gargallo. Narrative was always at the center of her literary, academic, and activist work. My argument is that the particular way in which she understood narrative transcends its merely literary-anthropological meaning and endows the concept with qualities capable of interpellate the epistemological order of Western modernity.

This dominant order has historically constructed a set of patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist hierarchies which, by organizing concrete forms of material domination, shape the characteristics of the hegemonic Western subject: male, white, and property-owning. These qualities also organize epistemic hierarchies, determining which practices and processes construct knowledge and which do not.

In contrast to this, Gargallo proposes narrative as a dialogical-relational element capable of producing knowledge anchored in the body, in sensations, affections, and territory, which, on the one hand, interpellates the hierarchies of Western modernity while, on the other hand, presents us with the challenge of opening ourselves up to diverse epistemic paths.