Emotions and Narrative Analysis: A Methodological Approach

Abstract

After what has been termed the affective or emotional turn in sociology and many other academic fields, there is still a dearth of methodologies for systematic empirical emotion analysis in sociology. The article addresses this gap and argues that the principles of narrative analysis can be fruitfully extended to the systematic empirical investigation of emotions. A short description of key principles and tools in narrative analysis will serve as the basis for showing how the same concepts can be used to gain access to the emotional side of human experience. To this end the article engages with philosophical debates to develop a specific theoretical notion of emotions—their narrative nature—and discusses the emotional nature of narrative. Specifically, this calls into question any clear‐cut distinction between meaning and emotion. Based on this, the text then employs linguistic and some psychological and literary research to demonstrate and systematize key ways in which emotions can be expressed narratively as well as on the level of sentences and words. Together this forms an encompassing methodological framework that can capture the emotionality of human experience in its manifold forms. Specifically, this also addresses the problem of non‐conscious emotions.

Feeling the Scope of Solidarity: The Role of Emotions for Volunteers Supporting Refugees in Germany

“…This corresponds to Spinoza's theory of the affect in which agency is defined as a capacity to act (and not be acted upon), which is correlated to feelings of joy or sadness. In anger narratives we can trace how a subject narrates the "self as an object" (Kleres, 2010), and helplessness can be determined by identifying grammatical features such as modal auxiliaries, try predicates, and negation (Capps & Ochs, 1995). We can see then how anger relates to the notion of a causal relationship, particularly when subjects do not become angry because "they found no one to ascribe agency to" (Kleres, 2010, p. 192).…”

“…One of the difficulties that arises from this constellation has methodological consequences: How to identify emotions if what people express in narrations is mostly situated on the level of reason, social norms, and justifications? As Kleres (2010) has pointed out even within a sociological framework, there is little methodological insight on how to conduct an analysis of narrative material with regard to its emotional dimension. He suggests reconstructing emotional dimensions and layers of emotional meaning through a narrative analysis, based on the seminal findings of Schütze (1983).…”

Do emotions fit the frame? A critical appraisal of visual framing research approaches

“…The second and broader path considers emotions closely linked to narrative structures (Kim and Niederdeppe 2014;Kleres 2011;Kühne and Schemer 2014) or as 'narrative elements' (Hertog and McLeod 2001). Narrativity cannot be understood through cognition alone.…”

Epistemic feelings in moral experiences and moral dynamics of everyday life

“…(Joas, 2000, p. 9) Joas interprets this answer as an expression of "helplessness and anger at this very helplessness" to explain one's own deepest values: because these values are felt to be so certain and evidently good for the interviewee, he feels no need to explore their roots any further (Joas, 2000, p. 9). On a methodological level this means that it is necessary to use the tools and instruments of narrative analysis in order to reveal the epistemic feelings, or any other emotions (Kleres, 2010), inherent in verbal expressions. However, although one can begin to study epistemic feelings by looking at what people talk about and how they speak in qualitative interviews or real-life interactions, it may be advisable to go beyond such narrations and verbal expressions.…”