Fractals, Narrative, and Cognition

Joseph Campbell’s theory of the “monomyth” posits a narrative deep structure underlying all human storytelling. In his words, the monomyth represents the expression of “principles, which have remained as constant throughout the course of human history as the form and nervous structure of the human physique itself.” Many others have suggested that the very essence of human cognition is grounded in narrative. If claims such as these are true, we should be able to identify structural homologies between narrativity and cognition, deriving insights about their concomitant processes as expressions of these deeper principles to which Campbell refers. One possible connection are the self-similar structures simultaneously expressed at multiple levels of abstraction knows as fractals. Self-similar structures have been linked to archetypal narrativity, and have been suggested as a mechanism for the production of consciousness, but no one seems yet to have invoked fractal structures to explain the deep connection between narrative and consciousness. This chapter outlines several of the important structural theories that have linked narrative, self-similarity, and consciousness, proposing that the narrative structure of the monomyth provides a mechanism for the production of empirical concepts in terms of fractal structures, contributing to the elevation of mere information processing into human consciousness. This would have wide-ranging implications, including explaining the well-known effect of fiction reading increasing empathy responses in the reader, and the origin and character of long-range correlations in narrative texts, particularly in those of the stream of consciousness genre.