Journal of Narrative and Life History - Volume 5, Issue 2, 1995

AbstractThe recent increase in the number of narrative studies in the human sciences is marked by great diversity in methods and theoretical perspectives. Researchers offer different answers to many questions, from what constitutes a narrative and how different genres may be specified to the aims and functions of storytell-ing. To clarify differences among approaches, a typology of models is proposed that focuses on which of three alternative problems are defined as the central task for narrative research: reference and the relation between temporal order-ings of events and their narrative representation; textual coherence and struc-ture, and how these are achieved through narrative strategies; and psychological, cultural, and social contexts and functions of narratives. Within each of these general categories, subclasses are distinguished in terms of the specific ways in which the central problem is addressed. Exemplars of each model are presented and related studies are cited. This comparative analysis demonstrates the depth, strength, and diversity of current research on narra-tive. It is suggested that further development of the field would benefit from more inclusive research strategies that combine what have been separate lines of inquiry. (Narrative Analyses; Types and Functions; Social Sciences; Educa-tion; Psychology

Abstract Indentured laborers from India were brought to the West Indies beginning in the 1840s. They form upwards of 40% of the population of several West Indian territories, including Trinidad (part of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago). Despite considerable assimilation to West Indian norms, these peo-ple of Indian descent feel strongly about retaining a separate and distinctive cultural identity. There is no overall consensus, however, as to what these people and their distinctive culture should be called. I argue that the quest for an appropriate label of ethnic identity is not a matter of arcane academic interest, but is at the heart of these people's construction of a secure place in a pluralistic society. The technique of projective life-history narrative is explored as a means to uncover the dynamic of the discourse of ethnic self-identification in modern Trinidad. Four widely used labels of ethnic identity are seen as master meta-phors to which individual life accounts are assimilated. Analysis of the formal properties of those accounts facilitates an understanding of how people of Indian descent think of themselves and present themselves in social interaction with members of other groups. (Anthropology)

Abstract This article raises the question of how contemporary multicultural authors and film directors build upon the magic-realist convention, with its specific narra-tive-discourse configurations (the way the story is told) to allow their audience access to foreign, often bizarre worlds. The first section of the analysis deals with understanding the precise structural configurations that make a text work as magic realism and explores variations that complicate the schemata. The second section relies on the first section's discussion of magic-realist codes to look closely at Julie Dash's film Daughters of the Dust , a text type that utilizes its visual and auditory tracks to work as magic realism. (Magic Realism; Visual and Literary Theory; Multicultural Images)

Abstract Use of connective forms in oral narratives is increasingly investigated as a device for signaling higher level discoursal relations, thus serving the stories' global organization. I set out to explore connective forms as both local and global links using Modern Greek storytelling as its data. My aims are to uncover the stories' template of organizational relations and to demonstrate their context sensitivity. This is achieved by looking into linkage forms in storytelling for adults as well as in storytelling addressed to children. The results of the analysis bring to the fore an audience-shaped strategy of conti-nuity and explicit signposting in the case of stories for children, as opposed to a strategy of salient segmentational shifts that mainly relies on devices other than discourse markers in stories for adults. I show that these strategies are revealing of an interaction between the stories' textual choices and their im-mediate context of occurrence. In addition, they index and are shaped by the stories' wider sociocultural context of occurrence. (Discourse Analysis; Sociolinguistics)