Narrative Resources Research Articles

Metalepses and Shoelaces: Advanced Narrative Resources in Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine

Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine (1988) bends narrative boundaries to the extreme. This article analyses the novel’s postmodern metatextuality, its confrontation of high culture and mass culture, its exploration of recursive thought processes, its inclusion of constantly shifting time references, and the function of its autodiegetic narrator. Special attention is given to the use of the footnote as a narrative device as it allows Baker to develop Gérard Genette’s concept of narrative metalepsis. Because of the unique way these advanced narrative resources are interwoven, the novel deserves wider academic attention as a milestone in contemporary literature in English.

Cashman, Holly R. 2018. Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities

This article reviews Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities

"Till Eulenspiegel": a síntese épico-dramática na comédia de Luís Alberto de Abreu

Till Eulenspiegel é a quinta comédia escrita por Luís Alberto de Abreu para o projeto Comédia Popular Brasileira da Fraternal Cia de Arte e Malas-Artes. O presente artigo localiza Till no contexto desse projeto e apresenta a influência das ideias de Bakhtin sobre cultura popular, de Bergson sobre a mecânica do riso e da estrutura dramática da commedia dell’arte na obra. Analisa ainda a exploração dos recursos narrativos do teatro épico desenvolvida pelo autor, sobretudo a partir da coexistência dos valores aristotélicos e brechtianos na “máscara tripla”.

Línea de vida como recurso narrativo para la formación socioemocional en estudiantes de pedagogía

Línea de vida como recurso narrativo para la formación socioemocional en estudiantes de pedagogía

Those who control the past control the future: The dark side of rhetorical history

What is the impact of rhetorical history on employees? We address this question by interviewing 29 workers in two organizations. Our critical interpretation of the findings suggests that managers willfully craft historical narratives to regulate workers’ identity and, ultimately, advance the organization’s agenda. Managers achieve this by peddling historical narratives that instill certain logics in workers. These logics, in turn, influence workers’ identification and involvement with the organization. The first logic, reflected glory, exploits the idea that what is historical is prestigious and coaxes workers into basking in their organization’s historical glory through identification. The second logic, preservation, exploits the idea that what is historical must be preserved and urges workers to be involved in their work to stave off the demise of the organization’s legacy. We further contend that organizations reinforce these logics using narrative resources—concepts that lend historical narratives more persuasiveness—such as place or longevity. Nevertheless, workers do not remain passive. While some engage in traditional resistance tactics, others leverage their collective memory as a counter-narrative to the organization’s narratives. While much has been said about the strategic uses of rhetorical history, we conclude by discussing its limitations and hitherto overlooked moral implications.

Creative visions: Presenting aesthetic trajectories in artistic careers

How do creative producers present aesthetic consistencies and variations within their bodies of work over their careers? I address this question by drawing on over 100 interviews and over two years of fieldwork in the New York City contemporary art market. I examine how contemporary visual artists’ recognition and access to visual and narrative resources for presenting their works shape how artists draw formal and conceptual connections among their works. I show that uninitiated artists work to present strong statements of their creative visions, emerging artists strive to produce connected candidates for iconicity that signal the breadth and core elements of their creative visions, and established artists try to create associations with the iconic that link new work to recognized elements of their creative visions. The article extends sociological understandings of artistic content and careers by revealing the relational process by which producers, intermediaries, and consumers construct aesthetic meaning.

Coaches' reflections on the meaning and value of Masters athletics

Masters sport is a growing social movement offering the opportunity to participate in competitive sports in later life. Although many studies have explored Masters athletes' experiences, little is known about how other actors in the sport subcultures construct meaning in Masters sport and whether their stories work to support or hinder participation. Our study explored the cultural narrative resources and life scripts surrounding sport and ageing that coaches draw upon in two European countries, England and Finland, where sport policy has put different emphasis on elite sport and sport for all. We analysed interviews from 23 athletics (track and field) coaches (8 women) to understand how they assign meaning and value to Masters sport. The narrative analysis showed that coaches constructed two possible athlete pathways: the elite athlete pathway, followed by disengagement from competitive sport, and the ‘second chance’ pathway, describing Masters athletics as an option for those who did not succeed in youth. Normative expectations about the life career in athletics, involving a transition from an athlete to a coach and volunteer, also worked to construct participation in Masters athletics as a selfish activity and neglect to ‘give back’ to the sport. Finnish coaches constructed more nuanced stories about Masters athletics and sport in later life, tapping into sport for all narrative resources that circulate in the Nordic countries. The findings indicate that athletics subculture is a contested space where ‘new’ discourses of ageing are only slowly starting to challenge the normative life script of sport as a project of youth.

The role of sport (and sporting stories) in a family’s navigation of identity and meaning

ABSTRACTStorytelling is a significant vehicle for the transferral of knowledge, perpetuation of collective memories and construction of meaning. Stories and cultural storytellers are attracting dedicated research attention across a number of disciplines, including cognitive science. Yet few examine family storytellers, an avenue of arguable equal import. Nor, their role in perpetuating and regulating the system of shared values that underpin the family structure. Indeed, family sporting narratives are largely absent. Thus, through narrative inquiry, we examine the significance of storytelling practices and sporting stories, to one family which spans four generations and three continents. The findings, which centre on the five themes of narrative resources, identity construction, socialisation, traditions and transcendence, clarify the influence of family storytelling processes on value governance and collective identity construction. They emphasise the significance of individual cricket stories in constructing their own identities. These stories provided an important collective resource that was a source of social capital, enhancing the family’´s narrative equity.

Holly R. Cashman, Queer, latinx, and bilingual: Narrative resources in the negotiation of identities. New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 205. Hb $150.

Holly R. Cashman, Queer, latinx, and bilingual: Narrative resources in the negotiation of identities. New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 205. Hb $150.

Las microexpresiones emocionales y de historia

<p>Las expresiones en animación son la base de todo personaje, han evolucionado con el paso del tiempo para convertirse en un recurso narrativo más potente a través de las microexpresiones. Principalmente, en el cine de animación, son utilizadas para mostrar un énfasis puntual de un sentimiento del personaje en un instante concreto; mientras que en los videojuegos la implicación y el mayor tiempo invertido del espectador y jugador, han hecho que sea cada vez más utilizado para contar subtramas de la historia principal mostrada en pantalla, dándole mayor veracidad.</p>

Narrative Resources amid Unspeakable Grief: Teens Foster Connection and Resilience in Family Storytelling

ABSTRACT An active relational practice of hope requires that individuals connect and communicate with one another in attempt to deal with despair and imagine an inhabitable future. For families grieving the death of a family member, this process often takes place through family storytelling while individuals simultaneously move through their own unique bereavement experience. Teens face difficulty in this process, as the context of their lives and the pressure to act a particular way for others often leaves them feeling disconnected and voiceless. In this ethnographic project, I served as a teen camp counselor at a family bereavement camp where teens relied upon aesthetic, embodied narrative experiences to communicate amid these difficulties. Specifically, these narrative resources enabled teens to acknowledge the value of their perspectives and re-engage in life in affirming ways, reject confining scripts for “appropriate” grief and co-create new ones that felt true to their journeys, and re-integrate themselves into their family storytelling practices with an affective voice in which they had recognized legitimacy and gained confidence. Findings suggest the capacity of these narrative resources to connect individuals in meaningful ways and foster resilience in family storytelling following the significant disruptions that the death of a loved one imposes.

Crímenes inmemoriales: nota roja y Material de los sueños

Desde el comienzo de su trayectoria, José Revueltas revela una atracción persistente por los casos criminales, sus repercusiones populares y su investigación filosófica. A partir de la exploración del submundo de la nota roja y los impresos populares, yde una inmersión a fondo en los archivos judiciales, sus últimos trabajos profundizan una reflexión a veces excesiva y delirante sobre el crimen y su memoria, la libertad y la ley, el “acto profundo” y el olvido de un crimen cometido antes, en el marco de una especulación que apela a los recursos narrativos —poética en el fondo, y a veces psicoanalítica—. Este trabajo aborda, sobre todo a partir de las notas y borradores dejados por Revueltas, dos fragmentos de ese último periodo: el relato “Hegel y yo”, de Material de los sueños, y las páginas de su novela inacabada: El tiempo y el número. Y con el trasfondo del sueño y la muerte.

Celos, amor y venganza, o no hay mal que por bien no venga by Luis Vélez de Guevara

Reviewed by: Celos, amor y venganza, o no hay mal que por bien no venga by Luis Vélez de Guevara Xabier Granja Ibarreche Vélez de Guevara, Luis. Celos, amor y venganza, o no hay mal que por bien no venga. Edited by William R. Manson & C. George Peale, Juan de la Cuesta, 2018. 197 pp. ISBN: 987-1-58871-321-6. In this critical edition, Manson and Peale bring Vélez's lesser-studied Celos, amor y venganza, o no hay mal que por bien no venga to the limelight. The analytical approaches to this work are still in early stages throughout the critical field, as more attention has been given to other plays among the more than four hundred that Vélez authored. Manson and Peale aim to fill the void of this play's research with a fresh perspective on its implications for the literary canon. The volume is divided into three main sections. The first one is an introductory study by Paul Michael Johnson, who provides a detailed analysis about several aspects of the play. An earlier brief analysis of Celos conducted by Emilio Cotarelo y Mori considered it "más bien obra de Lope de Vega" (11). Johnson does not deem Mori's qualification a questioning of Vélez's authorship, but rather an atypical appreciation of the utmost quality of the play, as a justification of why it deserves further study. What Ignacio Arellano considers "comedias serias, de ambiente palaciego" (11) and Miguel Zugasti calls a "comedia palatina" (11) are brought together [End Page 180] in Peale's proposition of a "Comedia Siciliana" (12) subgenre: works that deal with the complications of the Salic law—at least collaterally. While Celos presents a different tone in its lyrical style, Vélez's typical dramatism in offenses, treachery, strategical marriages, and other narrative resources are all present. Johnson's preliminary study offers an outstanding contextualization of the book's subsequent sections. He begins by exploring the use of emotions in early modern Spanish works, from Aristotle's description of catharsis to A. A. Parker's conceptual pyramid that subordinates characters to dramatic action, action to plot, and plot to the 'moraleja' of the story. Johnson presents the emotionality of passions in theatrical spectacle as the "verdaderos motores de la acción dramática de Celos" (20), which he emphasizes in his approach to the play. Besides emotions, Johnson's preliminary study contextualizes the play's use of accidental actions as they are related to good or bad fortune, astutely relating 'accident' and 'emotion' to provide a perspective on the gendered discourse present in Celos. Queen Rosaura, following traditional patterns of feminine instability in the face of the sentimental realm—and unlike masculine dominion of it—is shown to let her passions get the best of her. However, in direct opposition to this statement, women in Celos also stand out for their bravery and rationality. Johnson uses this apparently contradictory representation of gender to pique readers' interest, which undeniably endows the play with a complexity that should interest critical researchers. Johnson's final commentary on the physical setup of the play offers further insight into how different actions and requirements of the plot were manifested visually in subtle ways. The second section consists of a bibliometric study by C. George Peale, in which he contextualizes the rationales employed in the editors' transcription of the play. The final product is an effort in linguistic regularization that forms what Peale calls a "transcripción… moderadamente ecléctica" (44) which nonetheless maintains a respectful treatment of the "deslices y peculiaridades" (46) inherent to the text. This segment also includes an exhaustive summary of metric resources present throughout the play. Analytic minds will find this a useful exploration of the structure and form of Vélez's language in Celos, thanks to Peale's quantification of the frequency with which redondillas, romances, tercetos, sonetos, octavas, quintillas, and other forms occur. The third section gives way to the play itself, one that would certainly not be out of place next to other well-known political works like Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna, Calderón de la Barca's La vida es...

Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities by Holly R. Cashman

Reviewed by: Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities by Holly R. Cashman Celia Bravo Díaz Cashman, Holly R. Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities. Routledge, 2018. Pp. 205. ISBN 978-0-41573-909-2. Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual constituye la primera etnografía de carácter sociolingüístico que sitúa en el centro de su análisis a la comunidad latina bilingüe LGBTQ en Estados Unidos. Partiendo del estudio cualitativo de narrativas personales, cuestionarios lingüísticos e interacciones espontáneas, Cashman explora la construcción intersubjetiva de las identidades lingüísticas, sexuales y étnicas de 35 participantes en Phoenix (Arizona) entre 2010 y 2016, y cómo estas influyen (y son influidas por) las prácticas y actitudes lingüísticas. Por una parte, el libro se propone identificar los recursos mediante los cuales los participantes expresan su agencia y se posicionan dentro de las narrativas, y dilucidar la relación entre sus prácticas lingüísticas, sus redes sociales [End Page 438] y el paisaje urbano de Phoenix. Por otra parte, este trabajo cuestiona la universalidad de los estudios sobre mantenimiento y abandono lingüístico basados en el modelo de transmisión intergeneracional que relega a un segundo plano a los individuos LGBTQ. Por el contrario, la autora aboga por un enfoque sociolingüístico crítico—jotería sociolinguistics—que contempla factores como la sexualidad, la etnicidad, las fuerzas de la heteronormatividad y la hegemonía racial y conceptualiza la identidad como algo constituido subjetivamente en la interacción; una aproximación que se concentra en las experiencias presentes y su relación con fuerzas externas en el contexto más amplio de mantenimiento y cambio lingüístico. En el capítulo 1, la autora describe la compleja interacción entre la identidad sexual y étnica de la comunidad latina LGBTQ y las decisiones a las que se enfrenta en un contexto sociopolítico caracterizado por la hostilidad hacia la inmigración. La segunda sección está dedicada al enfoque teórico del libro, al que la autora se refiere como sociolingüística de jotería y que parte de la lingüística sociocultural y antropolítica, los estudios de jotería y el concepto de interseccionalidad. El capítulo 2 presenta las preguntas de investigación y la metodología, y describe las trayectorias de los participantes con respecto al mantenimiento y el desplazamiento lingüístico del español y el inglés. En lugar de partir de categorías preestablecidas, se enfoca en cómo los participantes perciben su propia competencia lingüística y muestran diferentes actitudes hacia el bilingüismo. En algunos casos, el inglés es un puente entre los miembros LGBTQ hispanohablantes y la comunidad LGBTQ dominante; en otros, una barrera que impide la formación de una comunidad. El español, en cambio, funciona como marcador de identidad étnica al que muchos participantes han tenido un acceso limitado. Los capítulos 3 y 4 tienen como objetivo deconstruir la distinción binaria y artificial entre las narrativas de dentro y fuera del armario. El capítulo 3 examina algunos recursos mediante los cuales los participantes co-construyen las representaciones de sí mismos y de otros mientras narran el momento en el que revelaron sus identidades sexuales dentro de la red familiar. El capítulo 4 contiene tres secciones que examinan las narrativas de los participantes que no desvelaron su identidad sexual y trata las nociones de honestidad y agencia moral. La autora señala que las diferencias existentes en la organización social de la identidad homosexual en Estados Unidos y Latinoamérica pueden ocasionar un conflicto entre las expectativas de ambas minorías en un contexto más amplio (Estados Unidos) en el que la lealtad a la familia no se valora tanto como 'being out and proud', pero no indica las razones sobre las que se fundamenta esta distinción entre los valores preponderantes en la comunidad latina por una parte y la comunidad no latina por otra. El capítulo 5 es un estudio de caso de una participante translatina de México, cuya experiencia se analiza siguiendo...

The Long and Winding Road: An Autobiographic Study of an Elite Athlete Mother’s Journey to Winning Gold

Within sport psychology, researchers have explored elite athlete mothers’ experiences. More work is needed to understand the nuanced psychosocial aspects of their athletic journeys. Studying autobiographical narratives is useful toward understanding the psychosocial nuances of motherhood and athletics in sociocultural context. Within the present study we sought to extend this understanding through studying one elite athlete’s—British runner Jo Pavey—journey as an athlete mother within her autobiography This Mum Runs (26 chapters totaling 253 pages). Thematic narrative analysis of key chapters focusing on pregnancy and motherhood in relation to training and competition allowed for the identification of a central theme—discovery narrative–reconfiguring the performance narrative—along with two subthemes: go with the flow and best of both worlds. The subthemes are used to illustrate the navigation of tensions in relation to an athlete mother identity grounded in family relationships to facilitate training and competition goals, within a discovery narrative. Applied sport psychology recommendations are made using narrative theory in relation to key findings. Recommendations focused on athlete stories and narrative resources as concrete entry points to encourage compatible athlete mother identities and sport career engagement. This study adds to sport psychology work that has used autobiography as theoretical, analytical, and applied resources to expand understanding of marginalized and/or hard to access topics in elite sport. This is the first autobiographic study to focus on elite athlete mother identities, furthering understanding of nuanced identity negotiation and experiences over time.Lay Summary: Understanding of elite athlete mother's negotiation of identity and athletic career is expanded through studying published/public autobiographical narratives. A discovery narrative grounded in personal growth and family relationships facilitates strategies that facilitate training and competition goals.

Trade Unions in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: What Shapes Their Participation?

There is a growing concern about the extent to which multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs), designed to improve social and environmental sustainability in global supply chains, give a meaningful voice to less powerful stakeholders. Trade unions are one particular civil society group whose participation in MSIs has received little scholarly attention so far. The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants that enable and constrain trade union participation in MSIs. Based on interviews, focus groups, observations and document analysis we determine local trade union participation in three MSIs, operating at company, national and transnational level respectively, in the Costa Rican pineapple industry. To explain the limited encountered trade union participation, an analytical framework is developed combining structural and agency dimensions, namely the MSI design and trade union’s power resources. The findings show shortcomings in the representativeness, procedural fairness and consensual orientation in the design and implementation of the MSIs. These are, however, not sufficient to explain weak trade union participation as trade union power resources also have an influence. Strong network embeddedness and improved infrastructural resources had a positive effect, whereas the lack of internal solidarity and unfavourable narrative resources constrained the unions’ participation.

A “miséria” da educação: análise de um manual de “empreendedorismo” do SEBRAE para professores do ensino fundamental.

O Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas (Sebrae) tem sido a principal agência no Brasil a difundir o chamado “empreendedorismo”. Nas capitais e, especialmente, no interior do país, uma das ações da agência tem sido estabelecer convênios com prefeituras municipais, com vistas a vender projetos voltados para a formação de sujeitos empreendedores. Entre os projetos está o programa Jovens Empreendedores Primeiros Passos, que consiste em um curso de “empreendedorismo” voltado para crianças e jovens de escolas públicas e privadas. Este trabalho analisa o conteúdo discursivo do manual do professor, elaborado por essa agência, destinado a educadores do primeiro ano do ensino fundamental. Na análise, consideramos o Sebrae aparelho privado de hegemonia, conceito do pensador italiano Antonio Gramsci, e buscamos compreender o manual tendo como base a concepção de ideologia concebida pelo mesmo autor. Nossa análise identificou aspectos que evidenciam recursos narrativos que visam enaltecer e naturalizar o ato de abrir uma empresa. Esses recursos buscam, entre outras coisas, atrelar ao mundo dos negócios aspectos que lhe são alheios, além de ocultar fatores importantes para a compreensão da realidade concreta. Ao fim, constatamos que o curso estimula a valorização do valor de troca, desconsidera o valor-trabalho e reproduz do fenômeno da alienação.

Crafting weight stigma in slimming classes: A case study in Ireland

ABSTRACTThe persistence of dominant social and cultural representations of weight loss renders it as normative and necessary, especially for women. One setting in which the goal of weight loss is relentlessly pursued is the slimming class. Drawn from the analysis of the ethnographic data from a larger one-year narrative inquiry study in four slimming classes in Ireland, this article demonstrates that while slimming is narrated as a positive intervention in the “care of the self,” the crafting of weight stigma is central to the dominant weight loss storyline constituted in the classes. Theoretically, the study weaves insights from the feminist expansion of Foucault’s work on disciplinary power and governmentality, Goffman’s concept of stigma, and narrative inquiry. Three main findings are discussed: the construction of slimming as a quest, slimmer identity, and the overt stigmatizing of fatness. The quest narrative produces a limited set of narrative resources (stories/characters/temporality) that make it very difficult to speak outside the narrative of weight loss. In an Irish context, where the historical circumscription of women’s bodies was pervasive, the findings illustrate aspects of the contemporary mechanisms through which such bodily circumscription endures.

Affect as narrative action in the Global South

Abstract This paper focuses on the performance of small stories from two Cambodian men interviewed by the researcher about the relationships they form with men from the Global North. The analysis attends to the empirical significance of these performances by focusing on the mobilization of affect as an interactional linguistic and narrative resource that foregrounds social action in this context. In this way, these small stories reveal how these men may challenge and reshape dominant social discourses at this sexualised North/South interface. Bringing to the field of narrative inquiry approaches from queer linguistics, and Southern perspectives, this paper is therefore tasked with exploring what the field may potentially gain from these areas, especially regarding the theoretical and methodological possibilities of a North/South dialogue in the production of knowledge.

The Aboriginal Alibi: Governing Dispossession in Colonial Bombay

AbstractThis article analyzes representations of the Koli as aboriginal in colonial Bombay, and explores the ends to which various actors have narrated Koli aboriginality. It examines the relationship between the historical deployment of the concept of aboriginality and its mediating role in the power of capital and state-making practices in one colonial urban context. The article shows how the Koli, as Bombay's “aboriginals,” gained concessions that served as an alibi for the market-based dispossession of the remainder of the city's population, and also as a pretext for claim-making by peoples with competing collective identities who used the tale of Koli identity and history as a narrative resource to argue for their own nativity. The Koli case helps us understand the co-emergence of the powers of caste and capital in Bombay, and compels us to revisit important, broader questions about relationships between aboriginal or indigenous peoples, capitalism, colonialism, liberalism, and governance.