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’