The performance turn in narrative studies

Abstract

The turn to performance re-situates narrative as an object of study: narrative is both a making and a doing. The performance turn emphasizes narrative embodied in communication practices, constrained by situational and material conditions, embedded in fields of discourse, and strategically distributed to reproduce and critique existing relations of power and knowledge.

A Methodological Reflection on the Process of Narrative Analysis: Alienation and Identity in the Life Histories of English Language Teachers

“…By identities, I refer to types of persons or social positions (e.g., mother, professor, North American), while recognizing that the identities that each human being can claim are multiple, dynamic, and contradictory (Norton, 2000). I additionally argue that identities are actually produced in narrative through the process of representation (Peterson & Langellier, 2006). In recounting my own experience of narrative analysis in this article, I represent myself (and thus produce myself) as an expert narrative analyst, who is confident enough to risk writing an academic journal article in narrative form.…”

The Invisible Civil Servant: How Female Senior Lecturers in Sweden Narrate Work

“…This study uses a narrative method inspired by a performative approach ( Peterson & Langellier 2006), which has previously been used in feminist studies (see, e.g., Czarniawska 2004;Morison & Macleod 2013). This approach was chosen to frame everyday perspectives on academic work wherein the story told by the interviewee provides the possibility to integrate their subjective experience into the specific context of others.…”

“…The stories told give information not only about specific events and how they are viewed but also about the storyteller herself, who is understood as an active agent (Elliot 2005;Sfard & Prusak 2005). The performative perspective of narrative analysis describes narrative as both making-creating a product side by side with other products (e.g., texts, images)-and doing-positioning the storyteller throughout the story ( Peterson & Langellier 2006). Furthermore, the performative narrative approach is especially useful when analyzing gendered experiences.…”

“…Thus, storytelling can be described as an expression of how individuals make sense of a situation (Ericsson & Rakar 2017). Positioning is important in this perspective; the storyteller functions as a character in his/her own story, taking various positions in different contexts and making the story an act of performance (Peterson & Langellier 2006). Accordingly, the narrative itself reproduces existing power relations, which means that the narrative analysis can reveal social constructions.…”

Vivenciando a outridade: escalas, indexicalidade e performances narrativas de universitários migrantes

“…Outra ferramenta teórico-analítica neste trabalho é a narrativa (CONNELLY; CLANDININ, 2011;FREEMAN, 2013;KIM, 2016;GUBRIUM;HOLSTEIN, 2003;SQUIRE et al, 2014), entendida como uma prática discursivo-interacional social e situada (BASTOS; BIAR, 2015; MOITA LOPES, 2009). Assim, há que se levar em conta o caráter performativo das narrativas, uma vez que o ato de narrar é ação, é performance, e é nesse ato que construímos os significados sobre quem somos, sobre quem são os outros e sobre o mundo (KIM, 2016;MOITA LOPES, 2009;PETERSON;LANGELLIER, 2006). Sendo assim, para dar sentido às nossas experiências, estamos sempre construindo significados interacionalmente no aqui e no agora (i.e., microssocialmente) -em performances narrativas.…”