A new account of mimetic narratives showing how stories anchor audiences in experientially vivid “imaginary scenes.”

From ancient epics to television series, from novels to immersive documentaries, certain narratives transport us into another world. This book explores the distinctive nature of these mimetic narratives: those that transport the audience onto an “imaginary scene,” where characters take shape, time acquires depth, and the future still seems open.

Drawing on the latest research in cognitive, rhetorical, transmedial, and cultural narratology, Raphaël Baroni shows how mimetic stories mobilize our empathy, trigger suspense, compassion, and surprise, and why they constitute a laboratory for ethical and existential experiences. Baroni’s book is not just a theoretical contribution: it dives into the social and emotional power of stories, shedding light on both our need for fiction and the force of certain factual narratives. It is an essential work for understanding what has always made us storytellers.