1. small stories: a narrative-discursive approach to self & identity
Michael Bamberg
The narrative canon
Narrative as representations
Departure from the canon
Narratives as actions/interactions
Small stories as means to analyze “identities-in-interaction” <<a process orientation>>
Example (“I’m Shaggy”)
Wrap up (how ‘small stories’ contribute)
APA 2005
Narrative Psychology --- State of the Art
Thanks to Alexandra Georgakopoulou

2. Stories versus Narrating
Stories & Life as ‘resource’ <the CANON>
We HAVE a life/story (to tell) (as resource)
“Life is meaningful coz it’s a story”
Stories as an Epistemology
anti-positivist methodology in the social sciences
Narrative as social interaction <narrating>
stories-in-interaction (= “small stories”) as ‘navigating’ through ‘interactive trouble’
stories are situated actions <with selves in interaction>
Ritualized/habitual performances - sedimented through iterative performances - hailing subjects into being (potential of resulting in ‘identity’)
Where selves (identities) come to existence (EMERGE)

3. Analysis of stories versus narrating (as an activity)
Analysis of STORIES <the CANON>
Themes (partic. how ‘self’ is “thematized”)
Coherence (underlying ‘sense’ of a unified self)
Analysis of NARRATING <as mundane activity>
interactive operations
<as “identity negotiations/confrontations + co-constructions”>
discursive resources
<the rhetorical means to CONSTRUCT stories>
Discursive POSITIONS <positioning analysis>

4. Open Issues where small stories might be worthwhile
Overemphasis on stories about ‘the self’
Underplaying/-theorizing stories we tell about others
Overemphasis on ‘long stories’ (interviews)
cutting out/devaluating everyday, small stories
cutting out re-tellings, allusions to tellings, refusals to tell
Overemphasis on ‘past’ and ‘single’ events
Cutting out/devaluating ongoing stories, stories about future, hypothetical events
Cutting out/devaluating stories as trajectories, intertextual links between stories

5. Relationship between Canon and small stories
Complementation
How does this unified sense of self come to existence (issue of development + acculturation)?
how does the person in his/her particular culture and socio-historical context learn to “sort out” what is called life - and what makes life “worth living” (=what constitutes a ‘good’ life and a ‘good’ story)
Contrast
Differences in terms of ‘identity’, ‘development’, ‘narrative’, ‘language/discourse’, ‘entitlement +power’ …

6. Identifying + Analysing ‘small stories’ “narratives-in-interaction”
Three levels of POSITIONING
Characters are positioned vis-à-vis one another
Who is doing what to whom?
Speaker and audience are positioning each other
Lecturing, advice giving, accounting, etc
Speaker positions ‘a self’ / his/her ‘identity’
Expert identity, hetero-sexual self, masculine identity
Positions as interactively accomplished (in and through the use of discourse)

7. expl :“It wasn’t me, hey, I’m Shaggy” <<transcript>>
Same group of ten-year-olds + adult moderator
Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?”
borrowing ‘a male friend’ and ‘a girl’ <oohing her legs>
positioning level 1
borrowing another speaker
positioning level 2
borrowing ‘Shaggy’
positioning level 3
lines…

8. ‘Shaggy’ It wasn’t me Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
CHORUS:
but she caught me on the counter
saw me banging on the sofa
I even had her in the shower
she even caught me on camera

10. Moderator question: “what do YOU boys find attractive in girls?”
borrowing ‘a male friend’ and ‘a girl’ <characters IN the story> <positioning these characters vis-à-vis each other> <<WHY?>>
Positioning level 1
borrowing another ‘speaker’ <turning to audience + positioning them as ‘speakers’> <letting THEM ‘voice’ and perform the problem/trouble> <<WHY?>>
Positioning level 2
borrowing ‘Shaggy’ <claiming + performing Shaggy’s identity> <<WHY?>>
Positioning level 3

11. more complex issues: simple explanation:
Attraction talk is “trouble talk”:
Getting caught admiring girls (by ‘whooing’ their body parts or engaging in ‘attraction-talk’) makes you vulnerable
“borrowing” the Shaggy persona seems to be a way out of this <navigating vulnerability>
more complex issues:
There are cues orienting toward the project at work that this isn’t meant to be taken seriously <false compliance - parody -- detaching himself - mimicking>
Display of equivocating positions in order to avoid ‘fixity’ and simultaneously engage in relational friendship-work
…what this .. my frie:nd
..what his frie:nd…

12. ‘Shaggy’ as an example of ‘identity displays’
with different identity positions “WITHIN the same speaker” (“voices”) <interactive and relational accomplishments orientated toward “avoiding fixity”>

13. Speaking to narrative inquiry audiences
Kind of conclusion
Speaking to narrative inquiry audiences
Informing narrative inquiry approaches
reflecting ‘texts’ + ‘contexts’
re-considering the use of stories in interviews
de-emphasizing stories as ‘method’
Emergence of a “sense of self”
---by way of studying the SMALL STORIES people tell in their EVERYDAY interactions �
Identity Development as Process

14. Speaking to broader audiences
Re-theorizing ‘narrative’
Revisiting defintitinal criteria of ‘narrative’
rethinking the prototype (thematic coherence, structural unity, low vs high tellability, etc.)
what ‘other’ kinds of (other than personal, past-event, experiential) narratives ?
Increasing analytical compatability
Cross-fertilization with interactional paradigms
co-construction issue
teller-audience-relation accomplishments
telling roles, entitlement issues , empathy etc.
Rethinking + reformulating the ‘voices approach’