Common knowledge: reflections on narratives in community

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic and narrative research with eighth grade students from rural New Hampshire, this article explores the rich complexity of narratives built in a communal context. In close-knit rural communities, such as the one at the center of this article, personal stories may become part of a larger communal history. As such, narratives retold as communal stories highlight the relational context in which stories are crafted and underscore the ambiguity of memory, the multiplicity of truth, and the dynamics of power within a community. Here, communal stories strip individuals of the ability to craft individual narratives, as personal stories serve to create a larger communal understanding of events and history. However, for narratives of trauma in particular, as in the case at the center of this article, communal narratives may also serve as therapeutic, lightening the burden of unspeakable knowledge through the shared experience of knowing, remembering, and retelling what might otherwise remain silent. Consequently, narrative researchers must attend to the relational context in which all stories are constructed.