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Small Stories: The Power of Everyday Narratives in Identity Construction

Delve into the world of small stories as a tool for identity construction, exploring narrative methodology, life-event stories, and cross-cultural psychology. Understand how these narratives shape personal identities and interactions. Discover the significance of negotiating and retelling experiences in different contexts, forming a coherent sense of self constantly evolving through storytelling. Uncover how small stories serve as platforms for iterative identity projects, challenging dominant narratives and engaging in moral experimentation. Learn about narrative inquiry and cultural psychology at Clark University.

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Small Stories: The Power of Everyday Narratives in Identity Construction

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  1. Sunday Morning • Reconsidering SMALL STORIES • what have we learned thus far? • How important IS the context of telling? • Exercise 3 • 10-year-olds on “why girls are disgusting” • Exercise 4 • 13-year-olds on “why it is okay to tease girls” • Sum Up

  2. Davie Hogan story • 4 boys sitting around the campfire • The “Davie Hogan Story” • What is the story about? a fat boy, barforama, revenge, turning the tables on adults, ‘coming of age’ (in America) • Two versions Two different perspectives: (i) more detached (ii) more involved • The Interactive Situation: • Story negotiation beforehand • What is the story about? • Story negotiation after the story • What did it mean? • Stories as LOCAL sense-making mechanisms • Different versions -- Different meanings • Micro-Analysis (i) story (ii) turn-by-turn actions • STORY as part of a situated, ongoing interaction <context>

  3. Betty’s losing-her-dress-story • Two versions/perspectives (same Betty?) • Same speaker (Betty as speaker/narrator) • Same events (buying a dress, looking great, losing the dress) • Betty as ‘answering different questions’ • Betty as ‘displaying different selves’ • Betty as ‘performing different identities’ • MICRO-analysis of the language used to construct ‘detachment’ versus ‘involvement’ (= the construction of stance or valuation <= personal perspective>) • ‘Perspectives/Stances’ on life = ‘identities’ • Identities as ‘interactively occasioned/performed

  4. Implications of this View ofSelf & Identity • Identity as iterative, everyday performance • Drawing on Judith Butler’s work (1990) • Identity constituted in performance • Fashioned and revised in everyday interactions • Re-enacted and re-experienced continuously to achieve personal currency • Conversational narratives <small stories> as the sites for iterative identity projects • ANTI-ESSENTIALISM + ANTI-DETERMINISM

  5. Characteristics of Small Stories • Short • Conversationally Embedded + Negotiated • before • during • after • Fine tuned positioning strategies • fine-tuned vis-à-vis the audience • fine-tuned vis-à-vis dominant + counter narratives • multiple moral stances (testing out and experimenting with identity projections) • Low in tellability, linearity, temporality + causality

  6. Functions of Small Stories • Practice in doing identity work • Continuous editing of experience • Retelling of experience • Re-tuning these tellings according to • different audiences • different master-narratives • different (developing) senses of ‘who-I-am’ • Resulting in some sense of coherence • though one that is constantly reworked

  7. SUM UP • Narrative Methodology • Life Stories • Life-Event Stories • Small <everyday> Stories • Narratives in <the everyday> Culture • Narratives in Cultural Psychology • Narratives in Cross-Cultural Psychology • Cultural + Cross-Cultural Psychology • Places for publishing: • Cultural Psychology + Narrative Inquiry (Clark Univ) • http://www.clarku.edu/~mbamberg (graduate studies)

  8. advertisement • Applications for Graduate Studies in Cultural and Narrative Psychology @ CLARK UNIVERSITY • Developmental Program • No fees • Stipends of $12,000 per year (TA-ships) • Close work with your mentors applications @ http://www.clarku.edu

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