Supported by the editors' popular podcast Narrative Now, this interdisciplinary volume addresses timely concerns about representation, power, voice, and the ethics of storytelling.
At a time of contested realities and a renewed focus on the power of personal stories, narrative research is as relevant as ever. But while it has been praised for 'giving voice' to individuals and highlighting how they make sense of the social world, critics are starting to question which voices are being heard, or allowed to speak, and which experiences are made to count.
Contributors explore the capacities and limitations of narrative research, and map out new directions for the field while honouring its legacy.
Table of Contents:
Foreword – Rachel Thomson
1. Narrative Now: Trends and Tensions - Ashley Barnwell and Signe Ravn
Part 1: Institutional Authority and Counter-Stories
2. Telling Stories with Ribbons: Visual Acknowledgment in the Wake of Child Sexual Abuse - Dave McDonald
3. Policy Narratives and Policy Change: The Case of Pill Testing - Martin Bortz
4. The Criminalised Other as Storyteller: The Promise and Peril of Bringing ‘Lived Experience’ into the Classroom - Diana Johns
Part 2: Tellable and Untellable Stories
5. Ethical Weaving: Creative Narrations of Family Trauma and Resilience - Wajeehah Aayeshah
6. ‘I can’t believe how much I've done’: Joan and The Evolution of Her Life Story - Nikki Henningham
Part 3: The Ethics of Representation
7. Songs as Narratives: Ethical Tensions in Midnight Oil’s Dead Heart (1986) and Gadigal Land (2020) - Liz Dean
8. Reading Back as a Way to Give Back? A Narrative Practice-informed Method for Interview-based Research - Sarah Strauven
9. Narrating Women's Life Histories: Voice, Audience, Ethics - Rachael Diprose
10. Narrative Next: Ways Forward for Narrative Research - Ashley Barnwell and Signe Ravn
About the Author :
Ashley Barnwell is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Signe Ravn is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Review :
“The distinctive contribution of this collection is to show the range of what counts as a story for different people, the multiple media and venues in which stories are told, and the necessarily collaborative nature of storytelling. The chapters are wonderfully open, especially to the limits of their own perspectives and methods. The difficulties of both telling and listening to stories are never resolved but always engaged. Authors do not present “findings”; instead, they keep asking questions, especially about how they represent the storytellers whom they honour.” Arthur W. Frank, author
