Narrative Rationality Research Articles

On the narrative rationality of a legend that grows: from ‘Da Yu Taming the Flood’ to the ‘Five Events of Da Yu’

This paper explores the narrative rationality and repeated expansion of the meta-narrative of the ‘Five Events of Da Yu’ resulted from the legend of ‘Da Yu Taming the Flood’. Guided by Fisher’s narrative paradigm, a hermeneutic analysis of the selected historical documents, archaeological discoveries, and commemorative items has found: on the one hand, coherence and fidelity have been observed abundantly with their respective criteria and standards materialized in the said meta-narrative. On the other hand, following a chronological expansion, the meta-narrative conveys the consistent themes of seeking concerted efforts in taming floods for the common good of all, while getting various tribes united and the first dynasty of China established. As a result, the analysis of the meta-narrative not only facilitates the development of an inner dialogue with ancient myths but also helps to bring together people across cultures in a universal world.

Narrative Preparedness: Policy-makers Must Engage with People's Values and Experiences to Ensure Effective Implementation of Interventions in Health Emergencies; Comment on "Health Preparedness and Narrative Rationality: A Call for Narrative Preparedness"

Engebretsen and Baker’s conceptual paper ‘Health Preparedness and Narrative Rationality: A Call for Narrative Preparedness’ advocates for the adoption of narrative preparedness in addition to health preparedness, emphasising the importance of engaging with people's stories and values during health emergencies. This ensures that policymakers and health authorities gain the trust of communities as there is evidence this leads to improved outcomes. Their key argument is that science cannot be used effectively in policy unless it makes sense to people and is presented in a way that resonates with their values. This commentary draws on the wider literature and some key examples showing the wisdom of this approach. However, it also suggests that to be successful in integrating narrative preparedness in policy we need to look beyond working with health authorities and use a more transdisciplinary approach as well as addressing both the process and normative challenges in its adoption.

The Politics of American Values in Barack Obama’s Life Narratives: A Rhetorical Analysis of National Ethos

Barack Obama weaves a sequence of his personal story rhetorically to evoke American national ethos, with a special emphasis on American values making them an integral part of his memoirs, especially his The Audacity of Hope (2006). This paper interrogates why he narrates the story of typical American values in his political memoir in general and ascertain them in a dedicated section titled ‘Values’ in particular to explore the implicit dimensions of his storytelling. Form the theoretical parameters of Walter R Fisher’s ‘narrative paradigm’ this paper contends that, by way of recognizing (assimilating or internalizing) typical American values, Obama prepares a ground for Fisher’s ‘narrative rationality’ to identify himself with American character and American people, and thereby evokes American national ethos to assume a statesmanship.

Eivind Engebretsen, Mona Baker. Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics. Scientific vs Narrative Rationality and Medical Knowledge Practices

Eivind Engebretsen, Mona Baker. Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics. Scientific vs Narrative Rationality and Medical Knowledge Practices

Health Preparedness and Narrative Rationality: A Call for Narrative Preparedness.

This conceptual paper argues the need for narrative preparedness, understood as the ability to engage and empathize with peoples' stories and the values they encode, assess them based on the universe in which people live, and acknowledge the narrative rationality of each story - even when it conflicts with the rationality of science. Expanding 'health preparedness' to encompass 'narrative preparedness' complements the ideals of patient centeredness, which are sometimes betrayed when implemented into concrete decisions because the rationality of science that underpins medical practice fails to make sense of patients' stories. We outline the central tenets of narrative preparedness and demonstrate its relevance by discussing various responses to mainstream discourses on COVID-19 as a case in point. We discuss and further develop Fisher's narrative paradigm, which provides a model that complements traditional, scientific rationality with attention to narrative rationality and a radical democratic ground for health political critique. Applying the narrative paradigm to authentic examples of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination demonstrates how closer attention to the way narratives are assessed by different constituencies might help us mitigate some of the sources of resistance and misunderstanding that continue to plague public communication about important medical issues such as pandemics. Health authorities must acknowledge and engage with the stories people believe in and their reasons for doing so. The crucial question for the success of health policy interventions is not only 'what are the facts' but 'how do these facts make sense to people, and why.' To be prepared for the next pandemic, health professionals must learn to engage with people's stories and the processes by which they come to be understood and assessed differently by various constituencies.

Social Deception Through Narrative Rationality Celebrity Drug Users

When arrested by the authorities, celebrities always insist that they use drugs to work, just as users, just trying, because of the work environment, deliberately targeted by the police or BNN, police engineering, they are framed. Jefri Nichol was one of the celebrities who made such a statement. The purpose of the study was to assess the rationality of Jefri Nichol's drug-related narrative. The study used Walter R. Fisher's Narrative Paradigm and Barbara O'Keefe's Theory of Message-Making Logic. Methodologically, research is an interpretive paradigm with case study methods. The subject of his research was Jefri Nichol and his statements in the media as his object. The results of the study showed that Jefri Nichol's was inconsistent. Before the case, Jefri Nichol knew the negative impact of drugs on his life and career. After being caught in the narrative, drug use is just trial and error because of work. During the examination of the police, the court, and undergoing rehabilitation, Jefri Nichol produced a narrative of victimhood in which the final motive was the reduction of punishment, image, existence, and economy. Keywords: Narrative Paradigm, Celebrity, drug users

The interplay of personal storytelling with rational justifications in online discussions: A qualitative exploration of news user comments

In light of theoretical controversies among deliberation scholars, this study thoroughly explores the interplay of personal storytelling with rational justifications in online discussions. In a qualitative content analysis, it examines how this relationship manifests in online news user comments on the public role of religion and secularism in society from the period of August 2015 until July 2016. To provide more general interpretive insights, the study analyses highly comparable data from multiple countries. The material stems from the websites of nine daily news media in Australia, the United States, Germany and Switzerland. In the investigated online news user comments, personal storytelling regularly interplays with rational justifications in the shape of a narrative rationality and a supportive narrativity. While narrative rationality relies on personal narratives to make a point in the form of a rational justification, supportive narrativity builds on personal experiences referenced in passing to further reinforce a general line of reasoning. Personal storytelling thus plays a vital role in justifying the normative rightness of the positions that the commenters take on the contested issue. This supports normative theories that acknowledge the merit of personal storytelling for public deliberation and provides new impulses for their specification.

“An orangutan stole my homework”: Using NPR’s “Bluff The Listener” to introduce narrative rationality

Courses Rhetorical Criticism, Contemporary Rhetoric, Argumentation, Persuasion, Communication Theory. Objectives Students will (1) learn the basics of the narrative rationality as a mode of judging rhetoric, and (2) observe the ways in which humans use narrative fidelity and narrative probability to judge stories.

(in)Fidelity: The Narrative Rationality of Tiger Woods

In this article, the narrative paradigm is applied to the documented life of Tiger Woods, viewing his story as sports folklore and public moral argument, asking, what patterns exist in his narrative? What values? And how can the narrative of Tiger Woods be described in terms of narrative rationality? Looked at as a mythic hero, Tiger feathers the line between fantasy and reality and has gone through the requisite rituals of violation and reconstruction. Accordingly, the duplicity in his character revealed through scandal, and the fallibility of his superhuman image exposed through injury give him something to overcome. As long as he redeems himself each time he falls the conditions of the mythic hero are kept intact. However, implicit in his story is the notion that ends can justify means as he has overcome scandal, criticism of his training methods, and criticism of his character throughout his career.

Narrative Persuasion: Moderating effects of character identification on relationship between message format and intention to screen for cervical cancer among women in agricultural sector in Kiambu County, Kenya.

There is evidence that use of narrative messages is effective in the context of health behavior change. There is however no explanation as to what aspect of narrative leads to high level of persuasion. We evaluated the moderating effects of character identification on the three elements of narrative message (narrative message frame, narrative rationality and narrator’s perspective) in regard to the uptake of cervical cancer screening among women in the agricultural sector in Kiambu county, Kenya. A randomised experimental design was used. Narrative Message frame (gain frame vs. loss frame), narrative perspective (first vs third person), and narrative rationality, were manipulated. The messages were presented via a brief narrative video on cervical cancer and cervical screening. A uniform pretest questionnaire on cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening (T1) was completed by respondents before watching a narrative video. After watching a narrative video on cervical cancer screening, participants responded to the post test questionnaire (T2). Data from 378 (100 per cent) respondents for the pretest and 344 (91 per cent) for posttest was analysed and included in the study findings for the baseline and posttest respectively. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis was used. The study found that the majority of respondents were aged above 41 years of age at 32 per cent majority 249 (65.9 per cent) of the respondents were married, and majority 210 (55 per cent) of the respondents had 1 to 3 children followed by 4 to 5 at 91 (24 per cent). After running multiple hierarchical regression analysis, the study found that identification with story character moderated for all the independent variables. The study concluded that while using narrative messages to promote health behaviour, use of story characters which the target audience can identify with, may help in increasing adoption of advocated health behaviour.

과학 교재의 수사학 : 『소리와 음악(Sound and Music)』의 서사 분석

Analyzing the rhetoric of a scientific text is based on the recognition that science communicates by employing the language. The paper intends to show that the narrative analysis which has been tried in analyzing general texts in rhetoric are appropriate and beneficial in analyzing scientific textbooks, too. Sedley Taylor’s Sound and Music which was widely used as textbook for teaching music students in the late nineteenth century is an object suitable for rhetorically analyzing how the effort to teach nonexperts the basis of science was made. The range of analyzing scientific educational texts has been extended by extensively recognizing the narrative as activities including human life and thinking process. According to the criteria of Water Fishers narrative rationality, the textbook satisfies the structural and material coherence through selecting and arranging appropriate contents as well as the characteristic coherence through providing contents while considering the features of readers who are to work for music but lacking in scientific knowledge. It mobilizes the narrative reliability by relying on reasoning and experiment as well as the authority of Helmholtz, a superb expert of acoustics at that time. However, it exposes the lack of narrative truthfulness by the misunderstanding of Helmholtzs theory of consonance and dissonance.

Confession narratives and mass kinship of YouTube celebrities: A narrative rationality analysis

Abstract Walter R. Fisher argued that human beings are homo narrans or storytelling animals who make decisions using narrative rationality, which is the ability to choose among competing stories. The question I consider is whether Fisher’s arguments have explanatory power in quick media, especially a specific type of everyday autobiography: narratives of well-known YouTube vloggers confessing intimate details or turning-point moments about their lives. Examples of videos include coming out as LGBTQ, serious illness, relationship dissolution and depression. This textual analysis looks at both sides of YouTube discourse – creator vlogs and audience comments.

Racionalidad narrativa y procesos de investigación-formación en educación

En el ámbito de las ciencias sociales y humanas, la investigación se ha desarrollado bajo el paradigma lógico-científico con la separación del sujeto en sus procesos científicos. La racionalidad narrativa ha fortalecido procesos educativos en los ámbitos de la investigación, la formación, la pedagogía, y podría ofrecer aportes al mejoramiento de la educación. El artículo de revisión narrativa se orienta a los procesos de investigación-formación en el ámbito educativo mediados por la narrativa que impactan el mundo de la vida y los asuntos humanos. Los agentes narrativos involucrados en el proceso investigativo configuran y refiguran su vida en el acto de narrarse. El texto se desarrolla en tres momentos: la racionalidad narrativa en la investigación científica; su aplicación en el espectro de los fenómenos sociales, el mundo de la vida y la vida misma; y su desarrollo en procesos de investigación-formación.

RASIONALITAS NARATIF DALAM MEMORI ALTERNATIF MEDIA (Pembingkaian Peristiwa 1965 pada Berita Media Daring)

Technology is not always related to hardware, but also related to its optimal use. Online news media has a number of advantages that are not owned by conventional media, such as space availability. In presenting an event in the past, news sites can technically provide alternative narratives. It is important to reveal how the online news media presents a number of important events in 1965. The focus of the study is emphasized on the aspect of narrative rationality. Using framing analysis of a number of articles in nine news sites, the study found that the arguments presented do not fully satisfy aspects of “coherence” and “fidelity”. There is still an incompatibility of substance when compared to other texts. Similarly, the alternative variations of memory presented are still more often a repetition of a number of known things. The support of media technology can not be utilized to improve the quality of the narrative presented over the past.

“What a Loser That Guy Was”: Norm Macdonald’s Humorous Critique of the Romantic/Warrior Narrative

Illness narratives are stories that focus on, or are inspired by, the sometimes life-altering experience of illness. Most narrative constructions of these illness experiences are built upon one of three broad narrative “skeletons.” One skeletal subform, the romantic/warrior narrative, is critiqued by comedian Norm Macdonald in a humorous anecdote that mocks the expectation that cancer patients must wage an epic and heroic battle against their pernicious cancer to have a chance to survive. Macdonald explicates that such a mentality produces heroes and villains, winners and losers, and places additional burden on cancer patients. In this analysis, I argue that Macdonald’s effective use of humor and fulfillment of the five functions of health-related narration enable his story to gain narrative rationality and serve as effective rhetorical tools in encouraging the audience to accept the narrator’s critique of the romantic/warrior subform.

Educação permanente em saúde: uma experiência do projeto “Bioética pelas Lentes do Cinema”

Este trabalho objetivou refletir e compartilhar a experiência de educação permanente com estudantes da Residência Multiprofissional em Saúde da Família da Prefeitura Municipal de Florianópolis, por meio da Bioética Narrativa. O Núcleo de Pesquisa e Extensão em Bioética e Saúde Coletiva/UFSC realizou no segundo semestre de 2016 o projeto de extensão “Bioética pelas Lentes do Cinema”, em parceria com a Secretaria de Saúde Municipal, ofertando-o para 47 profissionais residentes. Utilizou-se o cinema como recurso pedagógico para disparar a problematização da realidade e ancoragem dos argumentos de reflexão, construindo-se um espaço pedagógico de ensino-aprendizagem na aproximação do vivenciado no filme e o racionalizado em conjunto. Considerou-se que o projeto contribuiu significativamente para formação dos residentes e membros do Núcleo, especificamente, no desenvolvimento de sua capacidade crítica e reflexiva. Também permitiu evidenciar como a racionalidade narrativa auxilia a tomada de decisão frente às problemáticas éticas presentes no cotidiano do trabalho em saúde.

Emoción, racionalidad y argumentación en la decisión judicial

Based on the theory of the emotions proposed by Martha Nussbaum, the present paper proposes a theory of rationality and judicial reasonability that includes emotions as a necessary element. With this, it is possible to pass from a purely deliberative-abstract model of judicial argument to a narratively open one, in which empathy and literary imagination play a fundamental role. I will argue that emotions have a concrete manifestation in at least three relevant circumstances: the value of testimony, that of empathy, and that of literary imagination. However, the place of emotions for the project of judicial rationality is subject to institutional restrictions such as rules of law, procedures and precedents. With this in mind, a sketch of theory on the narrative rationality in judicial contexts is presented in the last section of this paper.

In the Lógos of Love: Promise & Predicament in Catholic Intellectual Life ed. by James L. Heft, Una M. Cadegan

Reviewed by: In the Lógos of Love: Promise & Predicament in Catholic Intellectual Life ed. by James L. Heft, Una M. Cadegan Patrick R. Manning In the Lógos of Love: Promise & Predicament in Catholic Intellectual Life. Edited by James L. Heft, SM, and Una M. Cadegan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. 219pp. $35.00. Taking the words of Pope Benedict XVI and Walker Percy as their inspiration, in 2013 organizers from the University of Dayton and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC gathered Catholic scholars from around the country to reflect on four themes related to the hopes and challenges of the Catholic intellectual tradition (CIT) in the twenty-first century: (1) the historical context of Catholic intellectual work in the United States, (2) the place of CIT in the contemporary academy, (3) how controversies over gender and sexuality have shaped recent Catholic intellectual work, and (4) how media has transformed Catholic intellectual life. Eager to share the fruit of their conversations, the editors offer this volume, not so much as a how-to manual for faculty formation, but as a resource for generating conversation about CIT. Una Cadegan’s chapter opens the volume by arguing that, despite crises internal and external to the church and conflicts between Catholic and prevailing modern attitudes toward uses of knowledge, the resources of CIT are more accessible and urgently needed than ever. Michael Diaz follows with a theological reflection on why a relational approach to truth—as evident in Trinitarian relationality, Latino theology, and Pope Francis’s ministry—is necessary for replacing [End Page 95] current cultures of fear with cultures of hospitality. Turning the reader’s attention to the academy, Paul Griffiths suggests that gratitude is the appropriate attitude of Catholic scholars toward their “pagan” (i.e., secular) host institutions and that, despite occasional friction, the future of Catholic intellectual life lies precisely within pagan research universities. In the following chapter, Amelia Uelmen proposes that two habits of inquiry into CIT, the “sacramental spirit” and “narrative rationality,” can help to overcome the historical lack of integration of CIT within professional schools. Pivoting back to broader social concerns, Leslie Tentler presents public debates about contraception during 1964–1968 as a model of the sort of open exchange with laity that would constitute a more adequate response to contemporary issues of sexuality than the current reign of silence. Exploring the contested issues of gender symbolism, the procreative end of marriage, and same-sex unions, Nancy Dallavalle argues that recognizing both the integrity of human embodiment as male and female and the possibility that same-sex relationships meet the criteria for traditionally sanctioned marriages would enable the Catholic Church to embrace what it values most in the human person. Vincent Miller assesses that the strategies of catechism, censorship, and correlation that enabled the church to form its members with unprecedented effectiveness in the age of national-scale mass media actually impede the church’s sacramental mission in the era of the new media. Examining media coverage of Catholicism during the AIDS crisis, Diane Winston describes how secular outlets’ reporting of key events presented a picture of Catholicism’s resistance to modernity that differed markedly from the multiple notions of that complicated relationship that emerged in Catholic reporting. In the capstone chapter, Scott Appleby calls for engaging young adults and renewing the church by taking a globalized approach to Catholic social engagement and spirituality, noting precedents and current signs of promise for such efforts. While there is nothing ground breaking about the broad conclusions presented by the editors (5), the real value of this volume lies in the finely textured picture of contemporary Catholic intellectual life painted in different strokes by the various contributors. Each chapter presents highly relevant descriptions of present cultural realities and the efforts of Catholic scholars to avail themselves of the resources of CIT in diverse contexts. The volume honors the catholicity of CIT by attending to the concerns of women, the LGBTQ community, and Latinos. The editors’ inclusion of topics of importance to Catholic families is also most appropriate in light of the recent Synod on the Family and the increasing pressures faced by academics with families...

The Irish Meet the Welsh Wizard: Character, Narrative, and Political Rationality in the Formation of the Irish Free State

The negotiations that led to the formation of the Irish Free State in 1921 form the focus of this article. A longstanding interpretation of these negotiations has the British finessing the Irish by playing on the weaknesses of character of the Irish delegation. This interpretation is both flawed and influential. On one level, the article questions its historical accuracy and proposes an alternative. On another level, the article seeks to account for its enduring importance. This interpretation plays a role in a larger narrative of Anglo-Irish relations that is rooted in British colonialism and Irish nationalism.

The Narrative Rationality of Violent Extremism

ObjectiveThis essay explores the narratives that are used to justify terrorist attacks by perpetrators and their supporters.MethodThe author examines the ways in which narratives rationalizing violence have been constructed and repeated by Islamist extremists and, in the case of Oklahoma City bombing, by McVeigh and other members of the Patriot movement.ResultsThe analysis of these two case studies demonstrates the power of narrative rationality to motivate terrorist acts and suggests narrative counterstrategies are key to undermining that power.