Discourse and Narrative Methods: Theoretical Departures, Analytical Strategies and Situated Writings

Looking at discourse and narrative methods in their interrelations, this book offers readers an orientation within this broad and contested area and develops concrete analytical strategies for those who wish to explore both or one of these fields. Discourse and Narrative Methods interrogates the debates on narrative and discourse from a fresh and powerful perspective. By revitalizing the post-structuralist feminist theory, Livholts and Tamboukou generate veritable canons of their own, foregrounding such authors as Hannah Arendt, Adriana Cavarero and Judith Butler. The idea of narrative as force, in particular, is intriguing and deserves further discussion.  Diary, letters, autobiography and memory work are only few examples of the areas where the methods are tested.  This is indeed an inspiring exercise in theory, analysis and personal writing. We have long needed a good book about how to do discourse analysis and narrative research – and this is it. Livholts and Tamboukou have written a book that is comprehensive, accessible and most importantly practical. It is an invaluable resource for students and teachers of research methods – covering the whole research process from theoretical underpinnings through data collection and analysis. This book draws together the domains of discourse and narrative theorizing and research methodologies, in a comprehensive and comprehensible way, without offering easy answers to the perennial reductionist question: "What is the difference between narrative and discourse?" Instead, the dialogical structure of the text mirrors the connections and diffractions between the two approaches, offering us the distinct voices of two writers whose work is sometimes in synergy and interwoven, and at other times, departs along parallel lines to explore different terrains. The text is a wonderful contribution in the best tradition of feminist scholarship; a blend of personal stories, political commitments to social justice, and rigorous theorizing.

Lively and engaging, this book opens up powerful new approaches for understanding and enacting discourse and narrative methods. Drawing on their own research experiences, and working with examples of data from across themes of gender and space, media and society, and autobiographical writing, the authors effortlessly blend analysis of theoretical and social contexts with valuable, practical research strategies. Exploring differences and connections across narrative and research methods, Livholts and Tamboukou offer dazzling insights as well as welcome guidance for the beginner and experienced researcher alike. With its compelling storylines and clear-sighted accounts, this book simply stands apart from stock-standard methods textbooks and will fast become a classic reference for anyone grappling with the richness of these methods.

A book full of insights, theoretical trails for students to follow, and voluminous references to the diversity of scholarly work informing narrative and discourse. Livholts and Tamboukou provide an important corrective to overly pragmatic books that emphasizes the "doing" of a narrative study. They invite us to think deeply about talk and text, visual image and power, and to interrogate our situated positions as researchers - essential components of good scholarly work.

Discourses and narratives are crucial in how we understand a world of rapid changes. This textbook constitutes a unique introduction to two major influential theoretical and methodological fields - discourse and narrative methods - and examines them in their interrelation. It offers readers an orientation within the broad and contested area of discourse and narrative methods and develops concrete analytical strategies to those who wish to explore both or one of these fields as well as their overlaps.

Illustrated with examples from real life and real research, this book: 

• Maps the theoretical influence from poststructuralist, postmodern, postcolonial and feminist ideas on the field of discourse and narrative.
• Acts as a guide to the most central analytical approaches in discourse and narrative studies supported by concrete examples of analytical strategies.
• Presents a variety of oral, textual, visual and other ’data’ for the purpose of analyzing discourse and narrative.
• Offers deeper insight into discourse and narrative methods within three themes of crucial importance for changing global context: media and society, gender and space, and autobiography and life writing.
• Acts as a helpful guide to situated writing based on concrete workshop exercises, which promotes ethical reflexivity, analytical thinking and creative engagement in the study of discourses and narratives.

• | Author: Maria Tamboukou, Mona Livholts
• | Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
• | Publication Date: Apr 28, 2015
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781446269701
• | ISBN-10: 1446269701