Claims and Counterclaims: Working Critically with Narratives

Abstract

In this chapter we hope, by a systematic review of key theoretical, methodological and related issues around our illustrative engagement with one boy’s narrative material, to encourage readers to try for themselves investigations using ‘inclusive strategies’ of narrative analysis — studies of ‘how narratives work and the work they do’ (Mishler, 1995: 17) — and contribute to the generation of situated and warrantable psychosocial ‘knowledge’ from a critical perspective. As we have noted, the close-up work of detailed and extended analysis, particularly taking into account both the ‘messiness’ of how personal narratives are said and the complex contexts of their joint-production, can be daunting and confusing. This may in part explain a typical preference for working rather uncritically with de-contextualised ‘snippets’ whilst embracing ascriptive interpretations. With this in mind, it seems appropriate to organise a summary of our theoretical and methodological claims simply on a chapter-by-chapter basis, thus creating a kind of step-by-step overview that at the same time reflexively reviews the overall interactional work of our discussion.