Analyzing Narrative Reality

by Jaber F. Gubrium, James A. Holstein

Analyzing Narrative Reality offers a comprehensive framework for analyzing the construction and use of stories in society. This centers on the interplay of narrative work and narrative environments, viewed as reflexively related. Topics dealing with narrative work include activation, linkage, composition, performance, collaboration, and control. Those dealing with narrative environments include close relationships, local culture, status, jobs, organizations, and intertextuality. Both the texts and everyday contexts of the storying process are considered, with accompanying guidelines for analysis and illustrations from empirical material. Methodological procedures feature interviewing, ethnographic fieldwork, and conversational and textual analysis. The conclusion raises the issue of narrative adequacy, addressing the questions of what is a good story and who is a good storyteller.

Analyzing Narrative Reality is truly multidisciplinary and should appeal to researchers working across the social and behavioral sciences and humanities, as well as to narratively focused researchers in nursing, education, allied and public health, social work, law, counseling, and management/organization studies.

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

Reviews

[Frank Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book that analyzes narrative not from a Constructionist perspective, but from a Social Constructionist perspective. The authors clearly trace out the ways narrative is negotiated "between" in the social environment rather than "within" the individual. Analyzing narrative on many levels, the authors describe narrative reality, how narratives work, the environments in which narratives are formed and the qualifications for narrative. The language used by the authors is easy to understand and the book has many examples. I will be using this book along with some other texts in my Postmodern Therapies course for graduate therapists in training.