Studying how people tell stories (plot, sequence, voice) and what the telling does for the teller.
- +Fits Interpretivist Epistemology, Constructivist Epistemology, Feminist Epistemology
- –Tension with Positivist Epistemology
Key thinkers: Catherine Riessman, William Labov, Donald Polkinghorne
The longer story
Narrative analysis examines how people construct meaning through storytelling. Not just what happened but how the story is told—sequence, plot, character, resolution. Labov gave us structural elements; Riessman expanded to performative and dialogic dimensions. How do people emplot their experiences? What gets included, excluded? What narrative resources do they draw on? For research involving life stories, professional identity, or how meaning gets constructed over time, narrative analysis attends to form as much as content.