Narrative Tensions: Perilous And Productive
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Published In
Narrative Inquiry
Abstract
We focus on four major tensions pervading much narrative inquiry to date, tensions that threaten to divide the field into alienated enclaves. Of specific concern are psychological vs. social explanations of narrative, structural vs. process orientations to research, approaches that celebrate experience vs. those that textually deconstruct experience, and accounts that center on singularity of self-narratives vs. incoherent multiplicity. Finally, we open discussion on a relational constructionist account of narrative, with an eye toward reconciling these disparate orientations.
Recommended Citation
Kenneth J. Gergen and M. M. Gergen.
(2011).
"Narrative Tensions: Perilous And Productive".
Narrative Inquiry.
Volume 21,
Issue 2.
374-381.
DOI: 10.1075/ni.21.2.17ger
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-psychology/414