Narrative Analysis : Studying the Development of Individuals in Society

Explains the problems and limits of narrative analysis. Each chapter emphasizes theory and the ways of thinking about research by means of studies that chapter authors have used in their own research.

Narrative Analysis: Studying the Development of Individuals in Society aims to help researchers and students identify and evaluate the wealth of rationales, practices, caveats, and values of narrative inquiry for understanding human development. A rich collection of chapters articulates diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives within the integrative theme that identity and knowledge development occur in dynamic social environments.

Editors Colette Daiute and Cynthia Lightfoot have brought together an internationally renowned team of experts in narrative analysis to create a volume perfect for qualitative researchers in sociology, psychology, social work, education, and anthropology. Students, professors, and experienced researchers will find the pedagogical elements and case studies perfect for course use and professional reference.

Case study examples offer a wide range of research contexts and goals, including:

• School-based violence prevention
• Holocaust survivors
• Undocumented children and families from Mexico
• Generational trends among women
• Suicide rates among First Nations youth

Narrative Analysis is organized around three approaches or "readings." Literary Readings focus on aesthetic, metaphorical, and other literary qualities inherent to narrative approaches. Social-Relational Readings build upon the idea that narrative discourse is personal but also echoes political, economic, and other material relationships in the environment. Readings through the Force of History explain how narrators come to know themselves and their worlds in terms of and in spite of the received explanations of time and place. Working in a range of ethnic, geographic, generational, class, and institutional communities, the authors demonstrate how they have used narrative inquiry to explore development in challenging social contexts.