The stories we tell – The stories we need to tell. How can storytelling effect social change? The case of Wu Ming

This paper, which is divided in two parts, aims to examine the possibility of bringing social change through storytelling. In the first part I will attempt to explore narrative theory so as to indicate how stories are structured and which elements the new stories should take into consideration if they are to have an appeal to the audience members. I will also look at the relationship between narrative and culture in order to justify why humans are storytelling animals as well as to exemplify narrative’s role in human meaning-making. In the second part I will focus on the work of Wu Ming, nonetheless, I will by no means include an exhaustive presentation of their literary project. I will rather touch upon some characteristics of their writing that can be proved valuable for the stories we need to tell. Their project constitutes both an excellent case
of politically committed writing and also an inspiration for the production of new stories. For this reason, a work of them entitled ‘Manituana’ will be analyzed in order to clarify the content and form of Wu Ming’s stories.