Story-critical Research
The storytelling boom has generated countless texts for narratologists to study — from fundraising emails, to social media and political campaign communication — and a “story-critical” approach to the storytelling boom has emerged.
Narratology Books
Brooks, Peter. Seduced by Story: the Use and Abuse of Narrative, 2022.
Fernandes, Sujatha, Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling, 2017.
Polletta, Francesca. It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics, 2006.
Meretoja, Hanna. The Ethics of Storytelling, 2018.
Meretoja, Hanna and Mark Freeman (Eds). The Use and Abuse of Stories, 2023.
Salmon, Christian. Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, 2007.
Squire, Corinne (Ed), Stories Changing Lives: Narratives and Paths toward Social Change, 2021.
Shuman, Amy, Other People's Stories: Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy, 2010.
Academic Journal Articles
Polletta, Francesca, Tania DoCarmo, Kelly Marie Ward and Jessica Callahan, Personal Storytelling in Professionalized Social Movements, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, Volume 26, Issue 1, 2021.
Macrae, Andrea. Small Stories in Charity Fundraising Letters and the Ethics of Interwoven Individualism, Poetics Today, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2022.
Mäkelä, Maria, Samuli Björninen, Laura Karttunen, Matias Nurminen, Juha Raipola and Tytti Rantanen. Dangers of Narrative: A Critical Approach to Narratives of Personal Experience in Contemporary Story Economy, Narrative, Volume 29, Issue 2, May 2021.
Mäkelä, Maria and Hanna Meretoja. Critical Approaches to the Storytelling Boom, Poetics Today, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2022.
Santos, Pablo Victor Fontes, Victoria Motta de Lamare França, Cristina Rego Monteiro da Luz, Mônica Leite Lessa, Humanization, Dehumanization, and Spectacularization: The Semiotics of UNICEF’s Unfairy Tales, International Political Sociology, Volume 19, Issue 1, March 2025.
Willett, Ashlan S., Aaron Levy and Rita Charon. For Clinicians Who Write Essays About Patients: Conceptual Review of Consent and Ethical Considerations, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Volume 41, 2026.
Research Reports
A critical analysis of charity advertising in the UK by Charity Advertising 2021-26.
Impact Storytelling: the Ecosystem, the Evidence and Possible Futures by UAL AKO Storytelling Institute, May 2024.
Critical Commentary
2023, January 23. “Is poverty porn over? Towards a new era of fundraising campaigns” in Eye on Global Health.
2018, January 12. “Yes, charities want to make an impact. But poverty porn is not the way to do it” in The Guardian.