What I want to do today is to consider what is involved when we seek to understand our own and others' lives backwards, reflecting on earlier thoughts, feelings and emotions, and responding emotionally to them. The idea I want to put forward is that everyday explanation of what we think, feel, and do is narrative in form, presenting what happened from a possible multiplicity of perspectives: not just the perspectives of those involved in what happened, but also the perspective of the narrator—the person who is giving the explanation. Seeing our everyday explanations in this light enables us also to see how emotional responses to value can be recognised in this potential multiplicity of perspectives. Things swim in emotions. In this respect, everyday explanation is extremely close to fictional narrative, and this is because they are both species of the same genus—the genus story.
Goldie, P., Narrative and perspective