‘Narratives and the everyday: Narrative production in context’

Ann Phoenix

Doing Narrative Research

In association with the University of Sussex

•Internet resources

•Workshops•Master classes

•Courses•Symposia

CONCEPTUAL CONNECTIONS

& METHODOLOGY

The teamAnn Phoenix; Janet Boddy; Julia Brannen; Rebecca O’Connell; Heather Elliott; Jane Elliott; Abigail Knight; Natasha Shukla; Claire Cameron; Rowena Lamb (Administrator); Molly Andrews; Corinne Squire; Gina Crivello; Ginny Morrow; Emma Wilson; Uma Vennam; Madhavi Latha; Catherine Walker; Joe Winter

Linking data

Secondary narrative analysis

Narratives, practices and

identities

Narratives of Varied Everyday Lives and Linked Approaches

TRAINING & CAPACITY BUILDING

Partner institutions•Institute of Education University of London•Centre for Narrative Research, UEL•Young Lives, Oxford University

Food Blogs

(MODE)

Paradata (HUB)

Analyzing narrative contexts

•Early development of narrative skills•Familiarity with multiple genres (e.g. fairy tale; quotidian routines; detective story; romance; comedy).

•Narratives connect past, present and future & situate place; sequence, temporality, spatiality

•Big and small narratives (Freeman; Bamberg, Georgakopolou)

•Basic human way of making sense of the world – we lead ‘storied lives’ (Riessman, 2008)

4

Catherine: And is there anything that you think could be changed in the local area? Any things which you think would make it better?Hemant: Mmm, that, um if the local area will have to, um, bet- better, the plants will have to plant it. And water will be properly used, not (.) not wasted.Catherine: Mmm, mmm.Hemant: Um and due to the rats, snakes will come. Catherine: MmmHemant: So we have to, uh, maintain the house rat-free./…/ Catherine: During the flood. Can you tell me how you felt at the time, when you had to leave the house? ...And you can say in Telugu.Hemant:Water was everywhere in the house. We went to another house in the night since there is a chance of snakes coming with flood water.Madhavi: She is asking how you felt when you saw water all around.Hemant:I felt scared.Madhavi: Why?Hemant:Snakes might come with the flood water.Madhavi: He was feared about the snakes./.../ Did you see any snakes?Hemant: No. But my grandfather killed one snake./…/ When water receded a slightly, a snake came in.

Narrative is legible outside Andhra Pradesh, but situated locally

Madhavi: Are there any places or things which need to be restricted? Usually elders admonish youngsters not to go to certain places or not to do certain thing due to some reasons.

Chitra: They never said anything.

Madhavi: You don’t have places like that around your house either?

Chitra: No. There is nothing.

Madhavi: Didn’t anybody say to you that it is dangerous for children to go to certain place?

Chitra: Uh. There are hay stacks near our house, right? Often I go there to pluck henna leaves. So they tell me not to go there often because there may be snakes in that area. And they tell me to be careful and not to go there often.

/…/

5

Madhavi: When did you see?Chitra: Near our [house =Madhavi: =Is it so rare or common? [Regular? =Chitra: = Rare]Madhavi: Rare, uh. Catherine: Mmm.Chitra: I saw them (snakes) two times. One night, before going to bed, I wanted to use the toilet and as I opened the outside door, I saw it clinging to the door itself. But I never saw it. I opened the door went to the toilet and came back. While closing the door I noticed that there is something large on the door. I went and brought my mother to see what it is. Mother woke my father and he said it was a snake. This happened recently. The other time was near the shed. My mother saw a snake next to the shed. And my mother kept me inside and called my father. She did not let me come outside. These are the two times I saw snakes.

Narratives are performative and culturally produced

‘...narrative remains defined ...by

sequences with a specific order, temporal or otherwise, which takes it beyond description; and by a particularity that distinguishes it from theory...’ (Andrews et al., 2013: 13)

• Riessman (2008, p. 3) ‘...Events ...are selected, organized, connected, and evaluated as meaningful for a particular audience.’.

• Key narratives are personal, canonical and evaluative—small narratives important.

• Local and societal and transnational6

‘Liveable Lives’

7

Discourses of the normative construct ‘liveable’ or ‘unbearable lives’ in canonical narratives of what it is to be a person.

Intersectionality: Kimberlé Crenshaw

•Heuristic for recognising simultaneous positioning in social categories—e.g. gender, class, sexuality and ethnicity--in non-additive and non-essentialist ways (Crenshaw, 1989; 1994).

The different groups we

belong to have varied

amounts of power in

relation to other groups

Inductive, concept arising

from observation of everyday life