Narrative Process Research Articles

On the importance of breaks: transformative experiences and the process of narration

ABSTRACT In this comment, I argue that transformative experiences such as experiences of grief often imply a break in one's coherent, non-fictional and biographical narratives and practical identities. The nature of these breaks is of a certain kind, as they interrupt even the process of narration. To insist that the process of narration as well as the narratives themselves belong to one and the same process of adjustment in transformative experiences such as grief might overlook the importance of such breaks, namely that the contain a moment of refusal and revolting against mourning. The tension involved in such breaks might not allow to be circumscribed into narratives nor do they fit into the process of narration as a destabilizing moment; the breaks insist on the incomprehensibility of each loss and they remain part of what it means to survive and to undergo transformative experiences.

An Empirical Study on Imagery and Emotional Response in Chinese Poetry Translation-The Visual Grammar Perspective.

The study investigated the evocation of mental imagery and emotional responses when English–Chinese bilinguals read classic Chinese poems and their English translations to examine (1) the target readers' formation of non-verbal text representations of Chinese poetry and (2) whether different translations affect the target readers' imagery cognition. A total of 20 English–Chinese speaker students enrolled in a Chinese university read a classic Chinese poem in Chinese and its four versions of translation in English. Through questionnaires and interviews, participants rated the visualized words used in the poems for the degree of mental imagery and emotional response evoked based on three indicators of narrative process, salience value, and emotive validity in the theoretical framework of visual grammar. Results showed considerable individual variances in the cognitive differences in forming mental imagery in all versions of the poems and there were also effects of translation strategy. Moreover, visual language information in poetry reading and its translations evoked different emotional responses depending on the use of visual words with cultural features. Our study demonstrates the applicability and accessibility of visual language in describing different readers' mental imagery and the interrelation and interaction between the poetry language system and the emotional, social, and cultural contexts involved in poetry translation.

Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Djarum 76 Advertisement Entitled "New Normal"

Djarum 76 advertisement is interesting to analyze because they show a different concept from other cigarette advertisements. This study aimed to (1) describe language metafunctions, (2) examine visual metafunctions, and (3) explain the relationship between language metafunction and visual metafunction of Djarum 76 advertisements as a multimodal text. The aim of the study was to to describe how Systemic Functional- Multimodal Discourse Analysis is used to analyze the multimodal text of the Djarum 76 advertisement. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach. The result showed that the representational, interaction and composition meaning of the Djarum 76 advertisement entitled “New Normal”. The visual elements of this advertisement are in line with the content, theme, and title of the advertisement, which is dominated by a narrative representational process. The circumstance elements also included details about the advertisement’s plot, such as a description of the scene’s location and time. This advertisement displayed more indirect relationships with the audience, implying that the advertisers do not expect the audience to respond. The most dominant image act in this advertisement is close personal distance. Furthermore, subjective images are the most prevalent perspective. Participants were portrayed as the focus of this advertisement by the advertisers. The participants who are being represented are also given unique characteristics. Sharpness was also used in this advertisement to visualize the participant. In addition, this advertisement used frames as the boundaries of the picture.
 Keywords: multimodality, language metafunctions, visual metafunctions, intersemiosis, resemiotization, Djarum 76 cigarette advertisiments

Opportunities for organizational learning and innovation: A nonprofit case study during COVID-19 in Hong Kong.

COVID‐19 has created unprecedented challenges and uncertainty for the nonprofit sector. Drawing from a case study of a community‐based service delivery nonprofit organization in Hong Kong, this research note examines the impact of COVID‐19 on this organization's daily operations, identifies its organizational coping strategies in response to the challenges it faced, and outlines key organizational learning resulting from its experience of dealing with the pandemic. With reference to the narrative development process framework, this study found that the customary social service delivery model was inadequate in meeting the emergent needs identified in the community. This realization served as a catalyst for the organization to employ socially innovative coping strategies to continue safeguarding the well‐being of vulnerable population groups. As a result, a new paradigm of service delivery leveraging on neighborhood support networks and cross‐sector collaborations was developed. Factors that would enable nonprofits to enhance their adaptive capacity in the face of future public health crises are discussed, with particular attention drawn to the usefulness of adopting a narrative development process in guiding organizations' collective actions.

교과서 구성 틀로서 ‘조선 초기 자주적 민족문화의 발전’과 그 비판

This study aims to identify textbook narratives and critically examine their influence through textbook analysis on the National Culture of the early Joseon Dynasty. This approach stems from my research interest in trying to deconstruct any textbook narratives which provides frameworks of organizing specific topics in instructional explanation as well as units in history textbooks. To foster historical thinking and deconstructive reading, it seems to be necessary to expose the characteristics of textbook narratives which would lead to reveal the constructing process and reality of textbook narratives. Specifically, the analysis was made with focus on ''the Development of Independent National Culture in the early Joseon Dynasty'' which plays a role of a textbook narrative throughout a series of National Curriculum revisions and textbook revisions. Such a textbook narrative was identified to provide a framework of decide, exclude, and describe historical facts to create a particular story of the National Culture of the early Joseon Dynasty. Compared to previous history textbook reviews focusing on factual errors, exaggeration, and biased descriptions, this study can be characterized to emphasize the way to read in a deconstructive way based on close examination of textbook narratives. Since the textbook narratives are to reproduce corresponding to public demands of present values and civic engagement, this study strongly suggests that students need to learn how to read historical documents argumentatively not by avoiding existing textbook narratives but by actively deconstructing them.

감정노동자로 살아낸 두 사람의 일과 삶의 이야기

The purpose of this study was to understand the personal life of Customer service representatives by exploring the work and life stories of the two emotional workers, centering on the life of call center Customer service representatives. The research question for this is as follows. First, what is the life experience of the study participants before they worked as a call center Customer service representative? Second, what is the life experience of a call center Customer service representative as an emotional worker? Through the narrative inquiry process, the meaning of the study participants’ life experiences before they worked as a call center Customer service representative was defined as ‘holding out and living’ and ‘being helpful to the family’ In the life story of a call center Customer service representative as an emotional worker, the meaning of ‘stability and being oneself’ and ‘being recognized as a capable being’ was defined. Through this study, it was emphasized that emotional workers’ narratives were important for integrated understanding and resolution of emotions and bodies with the understanding of individual lives of call center Customer service representative that is mostly happening non-face-to-face and their vivid experiences. In addition, social and institutional intervention seem necessary to prevent burnout and establish a support system for it. Above all, establishing a venue for empathy and solidarity will help them improve their psychological stability and autonomy. The study is expected to build the basis for appropriate psychological and counseling intervention to address the psychological difficulties they experience in the field of this job.

Particularizing the picture: Features and uses of instantiation stories told by clinicians doing autism diagnosis

Diagnosis is the narrative process through which professional clinicians transform experiences of illness and disability into disease (Hunter, 1991; Jutel, 2009; Kleinman et al., 1978). Maynard and Turowetz (2017a) found that the narrative structure for autism diagnosis consists of two primary story types concerning the conduct of children under assessment: (1) tendency stories about propensities or quantifications of behavior, and (2) instantiation stories that describe single instances of conduct occurring at a specific time or place. Instantiation stories represent a mechanism by which clinicians might preserve particulars about children under assessment in a way that is informative for configuring diagnoses that attend to the child's individuality rather than as a generic autistic child. This paper constitutes an investigation into the uses and features of instantiation stories as told by clinicians doing autism diagnosis. Clinicians primarily use instantiation stories to support generalizations about the child that relate to official diagnostic criteria (Excerpt 1). Clinicians also use instantiation stories to index instances of conduct that apparently misalign with a tendency description and the diagnostic picture (Excerpt 2). In such cases, clinicians work to demonstrate how the generalization endures despite the apparent misalignment. Furthermore, clinicians may use instantiation stories to tell about humorous or otherwise “storyable” (Sacks, 1992) conduct (Excerpt 3). Finally, clinicians sometimes use instantiation stories to mitigate the delivery of a diagnosis (Excerpt 4).

Interacting With Gender Violence

Stemming from a process of non-linear narratives in a digital convergence landscape, interactive documentary proposes an innovative change in the documentary realm by allowing the user to choose how to consume the contents and produce a universe of narrative possibilities where the stories begin and end by linking to each other. This paper examines to what extent interactive documentary may constitute a voice of process (Couldry 2), assuming to be a resource that may contribute to social change by seeking awareness of gender violence and justice for the victims. The empirical study focuses on two interactive documentaries approaching violence against women: Mujeres en Venta and The Quipu Project. The methodological approach draws upon a three-fold dimension: discourse analysis, multimodal analysis, and the interaction structure. Results show that both projects explore user’s interaction and participation to favor engagement and immersion with the narrated reality, aiming to promote social change. The empirical study has identified that the two documentary projects use narrative resources from traditional documentaries and simultaneously introduce relevant novelties to the perspective of user interaction and participation, aimed at favoring the engagement and immersion with the narrated reality. Mujeres en Venta and The Quipu Project propose a multilevel communicative flow, which encompasses three combined dimensions: aesthetic, narrative, and emotional (Mora-Fernández 198–200).

Research on the Narrative Function of Musical Symbols in Youth Movies

Film is an art form that combines sound and picture, and music, as a symbolic expression, plays an increasingly important role in films. In genre films, musical notation often has its own aesthetic value and ideographic function. As an important film genre, youth-themed films have formed a set of proprietary "systems" in the process of continuous development. Its function is not only to cooperate with the picture, but also to express the meaning and textual value of the music independently in the narrative process. Through the analysis of musical symbols in youth-themed movies, this paper attempts to clarify the ideographic mechanism of music in youth movie texts, interpret the main role of musical symbols as an interpretive link in the narrative process of movies, and make Chinese genre film music more vital.

Affect as Anaesthetic: how emotional contexts modulate the processing of counterintuitive concepts

ABSTRACT In popular narratives, minimally counterintuitive concepts (MCIs), which violate one category of our real-world knowledge (e.g. talking trees), are frequently embedded in emotional contexts. To assess the impact of emotion on MCI processing, we presented micro-narratives with negative or neutral contents before target sentences. We compared electrophysiological correlates of semantic processing elicited by MCIs, common semantic expectancy violations, and intuitive concepts, presented as critical within-sentence words and as images after the sentences. Results show that emotional contexts play a critical role for MCI processing. N400 effects in neural responses to MCIs that we observed after neutral contexts were not found after negative contexts, suggesting that the synergy between emotional context and MCI saliency enhances the processing of narratives at the cost of critical semantic processing. This finding is relevant for neurocognitive models of language comprehension in high-level contexts, for our understanding of the attraction of counterintuitive concepts and rhetorical strategies.

Increased Confidence in Deduplication of Drug Safety Reports with Natural Language Processing of Narratives at the US Food and Drug Administration

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) receives millions of postmarket adverse event reports for drug and therapeutic biologic products every year. One of the most salient issues with these submissions is report duplication, where an adverse event experienced by one patient is reported multiple times to the FDA. Duplication has important negative implications for data analysis. We improved and optimized an existing deduplication algorithm that used both structured and free-text data, developed a web-based application to support data processing, and conducted a 6-month dedicated evaluation to assess the potential operationalization of the deduplication process in the FDA. Comparing algorithm predictions with reviewer determinations of duplicates for twenty-seven files for case series reviews (with a median size of 281 reports), the average pairwise recall and precision were equal to 0.71 (SD ± 0.32) and 0.67 (SD ± 0.34). Overall, reviewers felt confident about the algorithm and expressed their interest in using it. These findings support the operationalization of the deduplication process for case series review as a supplement to human review.

A tale of two widows: investigating meaning-making and identity development through writing in the face of grief

ABSTRACT In this article we explore the grieving-through-writing process of two researchers who dialogue about spousal loss. Drawing on the idea that bereavement requires meaning-making, we engage in an interview-style conversation about how (1) we each made sense of our spouse's death, (2) experienced Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) as described by Calhoun and Tedeschi [(2006). Handbook of posttraumatic growth: Research and practice. Routledge], and (c) underwent identity change. Through a “researcher as practitioner” lens, we conceptualise identity change using Dialogical Self Theory and engage in writing as a therapeutic narrative re-storying process. We note that each of us differed with regards to when we wrote about our loss. The work is intended to contribute to the grief literature and can support counselling and writing-for-wellbeing practices..

Situating memory(ies) and promoting public pedagogy in Al sur de la Alameda: diario de una toma

Recently Chile has undergone significant socio-economic and geopolitical changes following efforts to forge sustainable pathways challenging disparities in power and wealth in the country. In 2006 secondary-school students launched the Penguin Revolution to protest inequalities in the educational system resulting from policies implemented during and after Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) and to critique the cause of economic differences that allowed the wealthy to prosper and marginalized the poor. This article explores the contributions of the novel Al sur de la Alameda: diario de una toma (2014) to the memory-building exercise undertaken by the Penguin Revolution, situating it in the context of memory activism over the last thirty years. Furthermore, it examines the novel’s promotion of public pedagogy in the context of its production, aligning it with the goals of the Penguin Revolution and argues that it is the polyphonic narrative and intermedial storytelling process that facilitate the novel’s socio-historical contributions.

Successes and obstacles in the work of upper-secondary schools with newly arrived students: A constructivist-inspired analysis of teachers’ verbal accounts regarding their schools’ organizational and practical work

Abstract This study presents new knowledge arising from teachers’ verbal accounts of successes and obstacles in the organizational and practical work of upper-secondary schools with newly arrived students. The analysis reveals several dimensions contributing to the construction and reconstruction of successes and obstacles in the teachers’ accounts. Teachers are constructed as actors with a power advantage relative to the “newly arrived student.” They set the agenda for student behavior, with an inclusive approach that is crucial to achieving success and counteracting obstacles. The approach imposes demands on how upper-secondary schools organize their work with newly arrived students and plays a role in determining supports and room for maneuvering that teachers have. Through the presented analysis, the study contributes to the development of knowledge in terms of four areas. First is the narrative processing of the combination of success and obstacles in the work with newly arrived students. Second is the importance of these stories for the representation of social pedagogical recognition and lack of recognition in the school context. The third area is identity creation and re-creation of professional actors (teachers), and the fourth area of knowledge involves alternative approaches to analysis compared to the typically expected didactic perspective. The study also contributes to the development of knowledge regarding the question of how a school’s morals function in relation to the previous and current experiences of teachers and newly arrived students.

Mobilizing Megaproject Narratives for External Stakeholders: A Study of Narrative Instruments and Processes

Megaprojects combine multiple external stakeholders, and a common narrative is essential to drive the project among often conflicting objectives. Narratives help organize people toward an agenda and therefore have performative and strategic implications. In this research, we explore how narratives are mobilized through narrative instruments and processes using the case study of the High Speed Two (HS2) megaproject in the United Kingdom. We record the use of three instruments—stories, labels, and comparisons—that undergo four processes: repeating, endorsing, humorizing, and actioning. These instruments and processes enable megaprojects to mobilize a narrative that helps in managing external stakeholders.

애정소설에서의 여성형상과 남성작가의 인식

In classical novels, the proportion of works that develop love issues between men and women as events is very large. A group of novels narrated with affection between a man and a woman at the center of the event was set as the category of love novels and studied. One axis of the research is to analyze the female protagonist’s appearance as passive and active, and many studies have been conducted to infer the appearance of women at the time according to the degree of social participation. This study paid attention to the fact that most of the classical novels were written by male authors. Classical novels are a reflection of society, and the image of the female protagonist reflected in the work may be a general image of women of the time captured by the author or a part of it. However, there is a limit as a male writer to describe the appearance of such a female protagonist. Therefore, in this study, the character formation of female protagonists in <Leesaenggyujangjeon>, <Haesaengiwoojeon>, <Choicheokjeon>, and <Joosaengjeon>, which were clearly identified as male writers, was considered. The female character formation in the three works has the image of a woman that men of the time ideally consider, and she has excellent writing skills so that she can relate to the male protagonist, and she is active in advancing the aspect of affection. This can be said to represent the female image of the contemporary society, but it cannot be excluded that it was created probabilistically by the perception of male artists. It is a point that requires careful examination of the fact that the female figure revealed in the work was formed by a male writer to favor the narrative development process.

The Archetype of Hero in Family Businesses

For family business advisors and consultants, the analysis of their client’s shared narrative helps them understand their business and family dynamics and the reality they have built together. Understanding the language of family mythology and the behavior of the narrative processes, can help positively to reinforce the purpose and meaning of their legacy and its transmission. In this article readers will learn how Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth of the Hero concept fits with the founder/entrepreneur myth in a family business, and how making it conscious can be used as a coherent tool that brings true meaning and inspiration to every family member in every generation.

Aging masculinities in Austria: Social realities and cultural representations

Combining theoretical perspectives and analytical methods from the social sciences and literary studies, this interdisciplinary paper discusses key findings of online focus groups conducted with Austrian men aged 65+ as well as ‘media logbooks’ they kept. Within the frameworks of the EU Gender-Net Project MascAge (Analyzing Social Constructions of Aging Masculinities and their Cultural Representations in Contemporary European Literatures and Cinemas), older men of diverse backgrounds met online to reflect on their aging and its intersections with gender. Analyzing these conversations, the paper showcases older men's personal experiences of aging as well as their societal implications. We put forward the hypothesis that the understanding of aging, and aging masculinities in particular, of Austrian men 65+ primarily revolves around the idea of power. Most importantly, they conceive of the aging process as a ‘power game’ in which one frequently loses, ideally maintains, and – in exceptional cases only – gains power. The paper outlines how both personal experiences and engagement with media representations of aging relate to cultural ideals of old men as figures of authority. In doing so, the paper critically examines these stereotypical notions of aging masculinities as well as older men's potential to subvert them through a narrative process.

Democratic Potentials and Social-Communicative Functions of Interactivity on Open Documentary Platforms Addressing Pressing Questions

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of open documentary projects on the web providing platforms for those affected by social problems to tell their stories. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, they gained significance as collaborative projects responding to pressing questions. They offered virtual spaces for community interaction and for the interactive negotiation of meanings and perceptions of reality, as face-to-face interactions on the ground became unfeasible. As networks of mutual support in times of uncertainty, they responded to the various needs of many people worldwide and in doing so avoided a hierarchical approach in favor of participatory, partly dialogical practices and a polyphonic form of presentation. This makes them interesting examples for the discussion of the democratic potentials and social-communicative functions of interactivity on such documentary platforms. This contribution analyzes two documentary projects: Corona Haikus (initiated by Sandra Gaudenzi and Sandra Tabares-Duque, 2020), launched as a Facebook group for visual poetry, and Corona Diaries (initiated by Francesca Panetta et al., 2020), a database for voice recordings. It argues that interactivity in the two examples first of all fosters democratic processes on the level of production and decision-making processes as well as on the level of meaning construction; further – as an adjacent claim – the paper suggests that the projects as complex assemblages allowed for the experience of virtual communities. By combining material analyses and praxeological analyses as well as drawing on approaches from political theory, philosophy, and social sciences in addition to the media studies-oriented analyses, the paper identifies the transformative dimension of collaborative interactive documentaries, especially in times of crisis. Despite different medial approaches with different advantages – visual poetry that encourages reflection and intimate voice recordings that enable affective, attentive listening –, both platforms function as a medial in-between that enables forms of collective identification and solidarity. The difference between Corona Haikus and Corona Diaries is: Corona Haikus uses the democratic potentials of the interactive communication network for collective negotiations of meanings, dialogue, and co-creation, while Corona Diaries focuses more on low participation thresholds for a – in terms of content – highly open space, which in turn does not allow for interactions among the participants. What the projects have in common is that the active participation in the open space without the classical hierarchies between professional media makers and subjects, the collective narrative processes, and the sharing of emotions can lead to the feeling of being part of a developing community, which in turn can help individual participants to cope with their experiences. Additionally, the nonlinear, polyphonic platforms open up new perspectives and relations not seen before. Another result of the paper is that future research should differentiate more nuancedly between forms of participation rather than arguing on the basis of an artificial distinction between interactivity and participation.

Paradoxical nature of narrative in analytical psychotherapy

This study explored the changes, obstacles for changes and the sharing of narratives in psychotherapeutic case studies. Study 1 developed an index for analyzing the process of narratives in psychotherapy, based on 101 cases. In Study 2, 203 cases were evaluated using the index generated from Study 1. As a result, three paradoxical natures of narrative became evident. Narrative in psychotherapy is thought to include (1) recognizing the beginning of a narrative, which can also signify the completion of the narrative, (2) negative movements that hinder the development of the narrative while at the same time move it forward and (3) an individual’s narrative that is uniquely one’s own, but easily influences and is influenced by the narratives of others.