...Title: Stories of Narratives: On Social Scientific Uses of Narrative in Multiple Disciplines Author: John Bryce Merrill Date: 02/09/2015 Name: Angela Uchechukwu Nwude A Critical Response Paper to Stories of Narratives: On Social Scientific Uses of Narrative in Multiple Disciplines In his article titled, Stories of Narratives: On Social Scientific Uses of Narratives in Multiple Disciplines, John Bryce Merrill, sought to explore how narrative is understood and used by scholars in multiple disciplines to address social scientific issues. To arrive at this objective, the he applied a systematic method of data collection using a grounded theory approach. The data constituted mainly of literature written by scholars of various discipline on the social scientific uses of narrative. An Inductive analysis of the data revealed substantial similarities in the way narrative is applied to social scientific issues across various disciplines, hence what narrative does and can do across disciplines. The writer examined these similarities, under three emergent themes, which shall form the fulcrum of this critical discourse. Narrative as a tool for the construction of self and social reality According to the writer, narrative play a privileged role in the process of self-construction. Individuals tend to construct stories and accounts of their lives through interactions, telling and other communicational skills called narrative. In telling these stories they create, restructure and represent...
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...CLRC Writing Center Structure of a Personal Narrative Essay “Narrative” is a term more commonly known as “story.” Narratives written for college or personal narratives, tell a story, usually to some point, to illustrate some truth or insight. Following are some tools to help you structure your personal narrative, breaking it down into parts. The “Hook” Start your paper with a statement about your story that catches the reader’s attention, for example: a relevant quotation, question, fact, or definition. Set the Scene Provide the information the reader will need to understand the story: Who are the major characters? When and where is it taking place? Is it a story about something that happened to you, the writer, or is it fiction? Thesis Statement The thesis of a narrative essay plays a slightly different role than that of an argument or expository essay. A narrative thesis can begin the events of the story: “It was sunny and warm out when I started down the path”; offer a moral or lesson learned: “I’ll never hike alone again”; or identify a theme that connects the story to a universal experience: “Journeys bring both joy and hardship.” “Show, Don’t Tell” Good story telling includes details and descriptions that help the reader understand what the writer experienced. Think about using all five senses—not just the sense of sight—to add details about what you heard, saw, and felt during the event. For example, “My heart jumped as the dark shape of the brown grizzly lurched...
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...Essay 1: Personal Memoir Essay #1 reflects on and expresses a strong tone on a real or imaginary event in your life. This 1000 word essay requires constructing a narrative. As we study narratives, we will examine using effective style and language and the following patterns of development: narratives that lead to a sudden insight, narratives that report facts and historical events, and narratives that illustrate a position or a philosophical perspective. We will also examine techniques of writing descriptions of people, places, and things, using comparisons, and writing dialogue. This part of the course also includes a study of writing as process, sentence structure, major sentence errors, modification, parallelism, and manuscript mechanics. A review of basic sentence structure will provide guidance in writing sentences effectively with variety, emphasis, and correctness. Assignment: 1000 word Personal Memoir Purpose: To write a well-organized narrative; to review eliminating sentence-level errors; to practice revision skills. To reflect on an experience and express an attitude, tone, or mood about an experience. Convey a tone about that experience, perhaps one of joy, anger, bitterness, or nostalgia for example. Narration is your primary writing strategy. Description is your secondary or supporting strategy. Subject: You may fully develop either (1) your free write essay on the last 45-minutes of your life, or (2) any real or imaginary event in your life...
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...Africa through Theatre This paper sets out to explore how processes of theatre making employed by The Mothertongue project, provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Mothertongue works from the premise that the development and subsequent performance of stories in theatrical processes affords women the opportunity to re-write and remap their personal narratives and in so doing insert their voices into the landscape of South African Theatre. In an attempt to redress the gender imbalances and androcentricism prevalent in post-apartheid theatre, this paper speaks to the relationship between theatre, liminality and communitas. I am interested in unpacking how collaborative processes of theatre-making provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Remapping in this instance refers to processes of transforming lived experience through story. I address how, through engaging in ritual activities that are central to the stories performed, actors, audiences and the owners of the source stories are invited to physically participate in remapping and transforming lived experience. Linked to this is the choice of form(s) and how this affects or impacts on the performed stories as well as on the construction of performed rituals and ultimately on the processes of remapping personal narratives. I focus specifically on Mothertongue’s 2004 production, Uhambo: pieces of a dream. The production was an integration of theatre and visual art in the form of performances...
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...by interpreter’s imaginative mind. Events or subjects shown in these works are that of the author’s experiences, environment, culture or just a pure imagination. 2. State the classification of prose. Prose is a continual narration and written in common sentence trend. It is the most typical form of written language that uses basic and ordinary grammatical structure with natural flow of sentences or speech. There are different classifications of a prose. Myth is a story or narrative about the origin of the universe, beliefs about the gods and goddesses, stories about man and mystical and mysterious beings. Legend is a narrative or tale of human actions that orally resurfaced version of ordinary source of things. An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. Essay is written piece that often come from author’s personal point of view. Biography is a narrative about the life of a person. Fable is a story about talking animals that leaves a good moral to readers. Parable is a narrative about the holy bible that intends to uplift moral and spiritual insights. Drama is a narrative story performed in the stage. Usually a short story focuses on one incident; has a single plot, a single setting, and a...
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...have shown an anthropological explanation for the journey of change making within capitalist structures. I have shown a critical analysis of ecopreneurs’ practices within capitalist structures. Here, I give a critical analysis on my study and provide some suggestions for further studies. Hegemonic Narratives The way we talk about certain things affects the way we think about that particular thing. In this case, capitalism is often framed with negative narratives. Reproducing this narrative makes it difficult to change capitalist structure. At the Impact Day conference in Amsterdam, many ecopreneurs showed their indignation about the concept of “social entrepreneurship.” According to them, using this term implies that...
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...The Gender Politics of Narrative Modes I want to challenge two linked assumptions that most historians and critics of the English novel share. The first is that the burgeoning of capitalism and the ascension of the middle classes were mainly responsible for the development of the novel. The second is that realism represents the novel's dominant tradition. [note 1] I want to propose instead that, as surely as it marked a response to developing class relations, the novel came into being as a response to the sex-gender system that emerged in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [note 2] My thesis is that from its inception, the novel has been structured not by one but by two mutually defining traditions: the fantastic and the realistic. [note 3] The constitutive coexistence of these two impulses within a single, evolving form is in no sense accidental: their dynamic interaction was precisely the means by which the novel, from the eighteenth century on, sought to manage the strains and contradictions that the sex-gender system imposed on individual subjectivities. For this reason, to recover the centrality of sex and gender as the novel's defining concern is also to recover the dynamism of its bimodal complexity. Conversely, to explore the interplay of realist and fantastic narratives within the novelistic tradition is to explore the indeterminacy of subjectivities engaged in the task of imposing and rebelling against the constraining order of gender difference. ...
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...state of the art communication systems and its employee turnover problem. The method of narrative inquiry employed to investigate how Information Systems Professionals make decisions for voluntary turnover, and the factors which are taken into consideration was used. According to Bruner (1990), “the narrative approach to conducting research involves the documenting and analyzing of individuals stories about or personal accounts of a specific domain of discourse that are contextually rich and temporally bounded, relates to personal account of experiences that are vividly remembered and structured in a sequence with a beginning and an end.” The structure is provided through the adoption of McCraken’s (1988) long interview techniques and by employing the resume as a guide to emphasize the sequence of the story. “This approach is based on the premise that the narrative can be a powerful way to locate and understand their beliefs, concerns, values, experiences, and learning. This method implies qualitative research, which assists researchers in their attempt to understand people and their social and cultural context.” Research employing the narrative approach, (Vendelo, 1998) has suggested that the sequence of the story elements (Bruner, 1990) contribute to the appropriateness of the method. Moreover, Swap. Leonard, shields, and Abrams (2001) “suggests that relating stories of personal experience would be more memorable, be given more weight and be more likely to guide behavior...
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...and differences in using the 1st person narrative approach in ‘The Lammas Hireling’ and ‘The Deliverer’. In your answer you should consider the following: • The poets’ development of themes • The poets’ use of language and imagery • The use of other poetic techniques. Both Duhig and Doshi explore the use of a first person narrative in ‘The Lammas Hireling’, and ‘The Deliverer’. This exploration of the narrative technique has allowed both poets to develop ongoing personal themes, each accompanying a sense of sadness and moral injustice. In ‘The Deliverer’, the poet takes advantage of the first person point of view, as it serves to develop ongoing themes of infanticide in Indian Society. This technique of first person is ultimately very largely effective, as its direct approach generally heightens the emotion the reader experiences for the sensitive topic, as there is in fact no hiding or concealing the bitter truth, especially when it is written out in the direct form of a narrative passage. However, the way in which Doshi presents these views through the first person Narrative, is quite unconventional. Through the use of making the ‘Deliverer’s’ daughter the voice, the audience is able to view the tragic events from the eyes of someone who has personally been a witness. This in itself draws similarities with the way in which Duhig presents his narrator’s own personal story of life on a rural farm. He uses the first person narrative to tell the ambiguous story of how as a...
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...The Ingenuity of Narrative in Memento Abstract: Narration, simply put, is telling stories. However, the way movies narrate tales is not like that of novels developing plot in words or drama unfolding in stage space, but has its own special method for narrative - moving images. In Memento, through its unique nonlinear narrative structure and intense structure contradiction, the motifs of memory, self-deception and revenge and the philosophical exploration of existential angst are demonstrated in an elaborate and subtle way. Key Words: Memento narrative structure narrative contradiction Memento recounts the story of Leonard Shelby, a man with anterograde amnesia, who distorts his own memory to deny the harsh reality in a both conscious and unconscious way. Living in a world full of lies fabricated by himself, the ill-fated protagonist makes the very principle of his life consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of the revenge for his wife’s death which is actually caused by himself. In Memento, the splendid way of narration gives audience not only indelible psychological experience, but also a test on their ratiocination. Below is the analysis of narrative advantages in Memento from aspects of narrative structure and narrative impetus, compared with novels and dramas. I.Narrative Structure Narrative structure is the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which a narrative is presented to a reader, listener, or viewer. Compared...
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...In an attempt at analyzing born-again Christians, Harding focuses on the usage of religious rhetoric in the conversions of fundamentalist American Baptists. Harding analyzes a non-socialized link to converted adults, which is distinctly different than that of children. Harding emphasizes on the conversion process and the persuasive and interpersonal language that convinces susceptible people to convert. However, it is debatable if Harding was objective in her analysis. Her use of religious language, the structure of the essay, and the definitional usage of “disbelief” in comparison to “belief”, discredits Harding’s analysis. In order to be converted as a born-again Christian as an adult who wasn’t initially socialized into Baptist Christianity,...
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...Family Counseling Approach: Narrative Lisa R. Murray Liberty University Online Abstract Narrative therapy is a therapeutic approach that is used alone or in conjunction with other methods of therapy. This particular method of therapy is used in family therapy to help clients focus on gaining access to preferred story lines in reference to their lives and identities the family dynamics that may affect them. The preferred story line will replace the place of the previous negative and self-defeating narratives about themselves. Helping clients within a family counseling to begin to become the author of their own story is important in many cases to overcoming multigenerational affects. Narrative therapy aids in this process. This comprehensive evaluation of narrative therapy within the structure of family therapy and the integration of faith will be constructed in the following pages. Keywords: self-defeating, Narrative therapy, multigenerational, therapeutic Introduction Narrative therapy is considered apart of the Social Construction Model. This particular type of therapy, the counselor or therapist is not a dominant entity or focal point of the process. Instead the therapist is seen as an influential individual to the client. The counselor will aid the client with the process of internalization and the creation of new stories or narratives within themselves that help them to draw new assumptions about themselves. This is done through the process of the client...
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...Types of Essays Narrative A narrative essay is a story told by a narrator. Generally, a narrative discusses the personal experience of the author (the first person point of view), but it can also be written about things that happen to others (third person point of view). A narrative typically involves characters, a setting, specific and vivid details, and a series of events that can include current incidents, flashbacks, or dialogue. Cause and Effect A cause and effect essay explores why events, actions, or conditions occur (cause) and examines the results of those events, actions, or conditions (effect). For example, a cause could be purchasing a new expensive home. The effect might be fewer family vacations, more time spent on upkeep, or less time with family because of extra work hours to pay for the home. Comparison and Contrast A comparison and contrast essay shows the relationship between two or more elements. The items can be compared by similarities and differences or both. The important thing to remember about a comparison and contrast essay is that the items to be compared or contrasted must share some common characteristics. In other words, one cannot compare a trip to France and a gourmet dinner because no similar points between the two subjects can be compared. However, an effective comparison and contrast essay can be written about motorcycles and automobiles because they are both motor vehicles, which is the basis for comparison. A comparison and contrast...
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...The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1352-2752.htm YouTube: an opportunity for consumer narrative analysis? Stefano Pace ` Universita Bocconi, Milano, Italy Abstract Purpose – The aim of the paper is to discuss a possible extension of narrative analysis to a new medium of expression of consumer behaviour, specifically YouTube. Design/methodology/approach – Marketing and consumer behaviour studies often apply narrative analysis to understand consumption. The consumer is a source of introspective narratives that are studied by scholars. However, consumption has a narrative nature in itself and consumers are also storytellers. YouTube is a new context in which subjects tell stories to an audience through self-made videos and re-edited TV programs. After defining the pros and cons of different approaches to the study of YouTube, narrative analysis is presented as a possible means of understanding YouTube. Findings – Some preliminary evidence is presented by discussing several YouTube videos. These indicate that YouTube content can be better understood as stories, rather than example of other approaches, such as visual analysis, media studies, videography, and others. Research limitations/implications – From the analysis conducted, preliminary managerial implications can be drawn. It seems unlikely that normal TV broadcasters will be substituted by YouTube videos. For the most part, YouTube content draws its sense and shared...
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...Otherness: Essays and Studies 1.1 October 2010 Haunting Poetry: Trauma, Otherness and Textuality in Michael Cunningham’s Specimen Days Olu Jenzen Early conceptions of trauma are intimately linked not only with modernity but specifically with the height of industrialisation (Micale and Lerner 2001). This is converged in the opening of Specimen Days particularly in the image of an industrial accident at the ironworks where a young man is killed by the stamping machine. His young brother, replacing him at the machine after the funeral, then experiences an apparition of the dead brother still trapped inside the machine, which leads him to believe that all machines house entrapped ghosts of the dead. Writing on the Victorians’ anxieties about internal disruption caused by the advent of the railway, Jill Matus (2001, 415) has pointed out that, Freud himself remarked in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), [that] there is ‘a condition [which] has long been known and described [and] which occurs after severe mechanical concussions, railway disasters and other accidents involving a risk to life; it has been given the name of traumatic neurosis’ (12). Freud’s remark brings to the fore the traumas of the industrial age as both individually and publicly experienced and negotiated. This condition of trauma as private and public, individual yet also societal is held in tension throughout Cunningham’s novel. Reflecting on the otherness of trauma and its vexed relationship to representation...
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