Varieties of Narrative Analysis

Holstein (sociology, Marquette U.) and Gubrium (sociology, U. of Missouri) bring together 12 chapters detailing various narrative inquiry approaches to analyzing stories, storytelling, and stories in society in social sciences research. US and UK researchers from various disciplines such as psychology, folklore, sociology, and communication describe how they deal with narrative through examples of analysis of the content and organization of narrative texts, including psychological themes of life narratives; dialogic narrative analysis; narrativity of the body, especially disabled or stressed bodies; and media stories of events. The second section addresses analysis of social interaction such as varied dimensions of everyday identity formation in media interviewing, political asylum, and language differences in speaker roles in cross-cultural encounters, followed by a section on analyzing narrative production, including public projects, popular beliefs about storytelling, organizational context, and solidarity, dissent, and negotiation. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)