Narrative Analysis

From The SpiritWiki


Notes

"Researchers who start in narrative studies are eager to find methods that can help them both define their object of investigation and study it. The reality is that there is no one-fit-for-all method of narrative analysis. Methodological choices, which are often eclectic, combine insights and conceptions that come from different disciplines." [1]

De Fina and Geogakopoulou distinguish three basic orientations to narrative analysis.[2]

  • Studies focused on temporal ordering and reference. Within this orientation the interest is on the content of the narratives: either events or experiences are focused upon, not the act of telling per se.
  • Studies based on the analysis of coherence and structural makeup. Here the focus is on the properties that characterize narratives as opposed to other texts.
  • Studies centered on the investigation of texts. Their focus is on the interactional narrative functions in social con through stories, on the settings and on the and social work that narrators do of narrative talk.

and finally propose a characterization of studies based on five criteria, object of analysis, general methodological approach, methods of data collection, types of data, and data analysis. [3]

Footnotes

  1. Fina, Anna De, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou,. Analyzing Narrative: Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. p. 23.
  2. Fina, Anna De, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou,. Analyzing Narrative: Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. p. 21.
  3. Fina, Anna De, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou,. Analyzing Narrative: Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. p. 24-5.