Narrative Inquiry - Volume 36, Issue 1, 2026

Abstract

Victimologists observe that telling one’s story can foster healing for survivors of violence. To understand these processes better, victims’ narratives must be understood as situated acts of telling. This paper takes one man’s narration of victimization long past — child abuse and rape — as a case. We examined his interview-derived storytelling with a focus on narrative positioning, narrative discourse modes, and negations. We found that Stefan (a pseudonym) used various discursive modes and narrative positionings to exercise control over the stories and what they mean. His agency was partly achieved by what he recounted not doing or saying, and what he refused to address in the interview situation. Thus, his narratives feature his own defiance and self-empowerment in both the scene and the aftermath of violence. These findings lead us to conclude that narrative strategies of storytelling should be taken into account in any practical interventions that involves testimony about harm.

Abstract

Due to limitations in data and methodologies, few quantitative analyses have been conducted on large-scale personal narratives. This paper addresses this gap by quantifying the semantic progression of personal narratives on Twitter and examining its relationship with narrative success. Our findings reveal significant variations in the factors influencing the success of personal narratives in politics, entertainment, and sports categories. This study deepens our understanding of the semantic characteristics and success of personal narratives, inspiring further exploration into the influence of the characteristics and success of personal narratives on self-identity.

Abstract

Thus far, few studies have investigated the evaluative points narrators may convey through the sequential features of reported exchanges in their stories. In this article, we conduct a micro-oriented narrative analysis on how epistemic and deontic status-stance relations are depicted by narrators in sequences of reported turns. We thus uncover how hierarchies and potential transgressions between the characters in the storyworld are “shown” rather than “told” to the story recipients, who are in this way equipped to evaluate the story as a whole and the story characters’ accountability for their interactional behavior in particular. Furthermore, we argue that the narrators’ discursive set-up of epistemic and deontic relations in these reported exchanges also displays their emic perspective to them. Therefore we believe that our approach can pave the way for a novel approach to epistemics and deontics, complementing the insights gained in the conversation-analytic examination of these phenomena in situ.

Abstract

This study explores the discourse expressivity of Chinese JFL (Japanese as a foreign language) learners’ Japanese narratives in terms of the variety and use of evaluative strategies, and analyzes how the evaluation system in their first language (L1) may be evident in their second language (L2) performance. For this reason, using the wordless picture book Frog, where are you?, we examined the oral narratives produced by adult Japanese native speakers, adult Chinese native speakers, and Chinese JFL learners. The findings suggest that the absence of “utterance attitudes” in the Chinese-language narratives is evident in the Japanese-language narratives of the Chinese JFL learners; thus, the evaluation of JFL stories is somewhat more direct, and the stories are easier to understand than those of adult JNS. However, the evaluations of the Chinese JFL learners’ narratives also diverged from those of the adult CNS in the direction of the target language’s norms.

Abstract

This article discusses the use of so-called “family narratives” in political discourse by analysing critically the way opposition leaders have resorted to this type of narratives in the United Kingdom. It is argued that family narratives represent a discursive gateway out of the political wilderness and back into contention for national leadership. They enable politicians to convey positive values that serve a three-fold process: the elaboration of a powerful ethos, the modernisation of their party and the rebranding of their party as a caring political organisation. Within a CDA framework, we analyse the relevance of family narratives in political communication and how they help opposition leaders reconnect emotionally with voters, after long spells in the wilderness. This is why we focus specifically on Tony Blair, David Cameron and Keir Starmer. The article also reveals how those narratives are instrumental in a new conception of masculinity and leadership in the UK.

Abstract

This study contributes to a methodological debate within narrative studies, emerging from the specific context of narrative criminology. It examines the evolution of storytelling styles, focusing on how the narrative selection process shapes a narrative, thereby revealing both the origins of narratives and their capacity to offer critical insights into the narrator’s perspective. This research specifically investigates the change of how narratives about the same events or topics, as recounted by two different individuals, change over time in terms of their narrative construction. Focusing on crime narratives provided by two participants – a drug dealer and a gangmaster – first in 2019 and again in 2023, the study demonstrates how these narratives not only evolve in structural complexity but also incorporate more sophisticated elements that highlight the narrators’ agency, rationalize or justify their criminal actions, or depict complex criminal identities. The findings underscore the potent methodological contributions this approach can make to narrative criminology, offering new insights into criminal behavior and dynamics that might not be as apparent in single-time-point interviews. This approach thus enriches the broader narrative studies discourse by applying its techniques and insights to the unique challenges and structures of criminal narratives.

Abstract

Determining how narrative identity relates to psychological functioning is important for understanding how psychopathology develops and is maintained. The present study investigated whether transdiagnostic factors mediate and/or moderate associations of narrative identity with psychological functioning. We analysed data from n = 245 University students who completed an online survey measuring turning point narratives, transdiagnostic factors and psychological functioning. Results indicated that rumination and emotion dysregulation, but not overgeneral memory, mediated the relationship between lower causal coherence and psychological functioning. Contrary to predictions, neither attachment security nor memory tone moderated any relationships between narrative identity and psychological functioning. These pathways may be particularly important for understanding the development and maintenance of psychopathology.

Abstract

Approaches to intergenerational memory (IgM) view it as a construct between personal and collective remembering in family stories impacting identity development. This article explores the dynamic construction of moral stance as a narrative dimension within the context of intergenerational perpetrator trauma memory accounts embedded in descendant life history narratives. Four retellings of the same IgM narrative constitute the longitudinal case study to demonstrate the construction of a moral stance by shifting the focus from what had happened to reveal the perspectives in retrospect. In these stories, IgM takes a central space where the family’s moral stance emerges as a continuum. It consolidates the storyteller’s evaluative statements to control possible interpretations, explore existential issues in a broad cultural context, and re-narrate trauma as a choice. We conclude that emphasizing moral stance as a dimension of IgM trauma narrative telling reconciles agency and rewrites the narrative as a tellable family history.

This article reviews Narrative Research Now: Critical Perspectives on the Promise of Stories978-1-5292-2865-6$ 120

This article reviews Weaving stories of language education with narratives of teachers and learnersEUR 128.39978-3-031-93854-2