small stories : a narrative-discursive approach to self & identity the narrative canon...
TRANSCRIPT
small stories:a narrative-discursive approach to self &
identity
• The narrative canon– Narrative as representations
• Departure from the canon– Narratives as actions/interactions– Small stories as means to analyze “identities-in-
interaction” <<a process orientationprocess orientation>>
• Example (“I’m Shaggy”)
• Wrap up (how ‘small stories’ contribute)APA 2005
Narrative Psychology --- State of the Art
Michael Bamberg
Thanks to Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Stories versus Narratinging
• Stories & Life as ‘resource’ <the CANON>
– We HAVE a life/story (to tell) (as resource)– “Life is meaningful coz it’s a story”– Stories as an Epistemology
• anti-positivist methodology in the social sciences
• Narrative as social interaction <narrating>– stories-in-interaction (= “small stories”) as
‘navigating’ through ‘interactive trouble’– stories are situated actions <with selves in interaction> Ritualized/habitual performances - sedimented
through iterative performances - hailing subjects into being (potential of resulting in ‘identity’)
Where selves (identities) come to existence (EMERGE)
Analysis ofstories versus narrating (as an activity)
• Analysis of STORIES <the CANON>
– Themes (partic. how ‘self’ is “thematized”)– Coherence (underlying ‘sense’ of a unified self)
• Analysis of NARRATINGING <as mundane activity>
– interactive operations – <as “identity negotiations/confrontations + co-constructions”>
– discursive resources – <the rhetorical means to CONSTRUCT stories>
– Discursive POSITIONS <positioning analysis>
Open Issueswhere small stories might be worthwhile
• Overemphasis on stories about ‘the self’– Underplaying/-theorizing stories we tell about others
• Overemphasis on ‘long stories’ (interviews)• cutting out/devaluating everyday, small stories• cutting out re-tellings, allusions to tellings, refusals to tell
• Overemphasis on ‘past’ and ‘single’ events• Cutting out/devaluating ongoing stories, stories about future,
hypothetical events• Cutting out/devaluating stories as trajectories, intertextual
links between stories
Relationship between Canon and small storiessmall stories
Complementation– How does this unified sense of self come to existence
(issue of development + acculturation)?• how does the person in his/her particular culture and socio-
historical context learn to “sort out” what is called life - and what makes life “worth living” (=what constitutes a ‘good’ life and a ‘good’ story)
Contrast– Differences in terms of ‘identity’, ‘development’,
‘narrative’, ‘language/discourse’, ‘entitlement +power’ …
Identifying + Analysing ‘small stories’“narratives-in-interaction”
• Three levels of POSITIONING– Characters are positioned vis-à-vis one another
• Who is doing what to whom?
– Speaker and audience are positioning each other• Lecturing, advice giving, accounting, etc
– Speaker positions ‘a self’ / his/her ‘identity’• Expert identity, hetero-sexual self, masculine identity
• Positions as interactively accomplished (in and
through the use of discourse)
expl :“It wasn’t me, hey, I’m Shaggy”<<transcript>>
• Same group of ten-year-olds + adult moderator
• Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?”– borrowing ‘a male friend’ and ‘a girl’ <oohing her legs>
• positioning level 1
– borrowing another speaker• positioning level 2
– borrowing ‘Shaggy’• positioning level 3
lines…
‘Shaggy’• It wasn’t me
Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
it wasn’t me
CHORUS:
but she caught me on the counter
it wasn’t me
saw me banging on the sofa
it wasn’t me
I even had her in the shower
it wasn’t me
she even caught me on camera
it wasn’t me
QuickTime™ and aDV/DVCPRO - NTSC decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?”– borrowing ‘a male friend’ and ‘a girl’ <characters IN the
story> <positioning these characters vis-à-vis each other> <<WHY?>>
• Positioning level 1
– borrowing another ‘speaker’ <turning to audience + positioning them as ‘speakers’> <letting THEM ‘voice’ and perform the problem/trouble> <<WHY?>>
• Positioning level 2
– borrowing ‘Shaggy’ <claiming + performing Shaggy’s identity> <<WHY?>>
• Positioning level 3
• simple explanation:– Attraction talk is “trouble talk”:
• Getting caught admiring girls (by ‘whooing’ their body parts or engaging in ‘attraction-talk’) makes you vulnerable
• “borrowing” the Shaggy persona seems to be a way out of this <navigating vulnerability>
• more complex issues:• There are cues orienting toward the project at work
that this isn’t meant to be taken seriously <false compliance - parody -- detaching himself - mimicking>
• Display of equivocating positions in order to avoid ‘fixity’ and simultaneously engage in relational friendship-work
…what this .. my frie:nd..what his frie:nd…
‘Shaggy’ as an example of ‘identity displays’
• with different identity positions “WITHIN the same speaker” (“voices”) <interactive and relational accomplishments orientated toward “avoiding fixityavoiding fixity”>
Kind of conclusion
Speaking to Speaking to narrative inquirynarrative inquiry audiences audiences
• Informing narrative inquiry approaches– reflecting ‘texts’ + ‘contexts’– re-considering the use of stories in interviews– de-emphasizing stories as ‘method’
Emergence of a “sense of self”---by way of studying the SMALL STORIESSMALL STORIES people tell in their EVERYDAY interactions
Identity Development as Process�
Speaking to broader audiences • Re-theorizing ‘Re-theorizing ‘narrativenarrative’’
– Revisiting defintitinal criteria of ‘narrative’
• rethinking the prototype (thematic coherence, structural unity, low vs high tellability, etc.)
• what ‘other’ kinds of (other than personal, past-event, experiential) narratives ?
• Increasing analytical compatabilityIncreasing analytical compatability – Cross-fertilization with interactional paradigms
• co-construction issue
• teller-audience-relation accomplishments
• telling roles, entitlement issues , empathy etc.
• Rethinking + reformulating the ‘voices approach’