Narrative Analysis

Narrative analysis in the human sciences refers to a family of approaches to diverse kinds of texts that have in common a storied form. As nations and governments construct preferred narratives about history, so do social movements, organizations, scientists, other professionals, ethnic/racial groups, and individuals in stories of experience. What makes such diverse texts “narrative” is sequence and consequence: Events are selected, organized, connected, and evaluated as meaningful for a particular audience. Storytellers interpret the world and experience in it; they sometimes create moral tales—how the world should be. Narratives represent storied ways of knowing and communicating (Hinchman & Hinchman, 1997). I focus here on oral narratives of personal experience.

Research interest in narrative emerged from several contemporary movements: the “narrative turn” in the human sciences away from POSITIVIST modes of inquiry and the master narratives of theory (e.g., Marxism); the “memoir boom” in literature and popular culture; identity politics in U.S., European, and transnational movements—emancipation efforts of people of color, women, gays and lesbians, and other marginalized groups; and the burgeoning therapeutic culture—exploration of personal life in therapies of various kinds. “Embedded in the lives of the ordinary, the marginalized, and the muted, personal narrative responds to the disintegration of master narratives as people make sense of experience, claim identities, and ‘get a life’ by telling and writing their stories” (Langellier, 2001, p. 700).

Among investigators, there is considerable variation in definitions of personal narrative, often linked to discipline. In social history and anthropology, narrative can refer to an entire life story, woven from the threads of interviews, observation, and documents [Page 706](e.g., Barbara Myerhoff's ethnography of elderly Jews in Venice, California). In sociolinguistics and other fields, the concept of narrative is restricted, referring to brief, topically specific stories organized around characters, setting, and plot (e.g., Labovian narratives in answer to a single interview question). In another tradition (common in psychology and sociology), personal narrative encompasses long sections of talk—extended accounts of lives in context that develop over the course of single or multiple interviews. Investigators' definitions of narrative lead to different methods of analysis, but all require them to construct texts for further analysis, that is, select and organize documents, COMPOSE FIELDNOTES, and/or choose sections of interview TRANSCRIPTS for close inspection. Narratives do not speak for themselves or have unanalyzed merit; they require interpretation when used as data in social research.