Experience and narrative: between counting and reading

The theme of the narrative, oral or written, has emerged persistently in contemporary thought as an articulation of issues as time, memory, experience, knowledge of self and the world. Its approach goes beyond the strict interest in narratives as works of art. This theme is inserted into a line of thought, which has its roots at the end of the XIX Century, which we might characterize as that engaged in reshaping and expanding of the modern concept of experience. Two authors who come from different philosophical traditions, as Walter Benjamin and Paul Ricoeur, not only share this historical starting point but also the task of expanding philosophically the notion of experience through the analysis of what occurs within the practice of story-telling / writing and listening / reading stories. We will first try to highlight some aspects of Benjamin's foray into the topic, and then address some of the traits of Paul Ricoeur's thinking, in order finally to attempt to rehearse some conclusions