Abstract
While the study of narratives has embraced an increasing range of forms of storytelling in the social sciences, its theoretical and analytical methods have been imported in uneven and fragmented ways from their original context in literary analysis. As a result, many social scientists are faced with the difficult task of making sense of an assortment of approaches uninformed by systematic knowledge of narratology. In this book, Shenhav proposes an introduction to the principles of classical narratology, adapting its basic elements to better serve researchers from diverse backgrounds who wish to apply narrative approaches to the study of the social domain. Although the important contribution of anthropology to this pluralist field has been overlooked, an extensive list of sources from an array of diverse contributing disciplines allows the author to discuss the state of the art and engage students with diverse backgrounds in this interdisciplinary project.
Classical narratology, closely linked to the formalist and structuralist traditions, developed what some describe as a toolkit for the analysis of stories stressing the idea of narrative as an object. The technical concepts introduced by narratologists such as Gennette and Rimmon-Kenan in that period are the starting point of Shenhav’s treatment of narrative. This book clearly assumes that the analysis of social narratives should be built on the aspects of classical narratology, even if the range of the phenomena under investigation is broader. The author starts, therefore, by suggesting a minimalist definition of narrative as ‘the narration of a succession of events’ (p.17) in order to keep it open to the wide range of non-canonical materials that are of interest to social narratives research.
After an introduction that includes a number of suggestions for using the book, Chapter 1 focuses on the discussion of the differences between the terms story and narrative, often used interchangeably, and of related narratological concepts. Shenhav draws from Rimmon-Kenan’s (2002 [1983]) definition of the three key elements in fiction narratives: story (what is being told), text (the mode of the communication and representation of the story) and narration (the act or process). To these he adds a fourth element, multiplicity (‘the process of repetition and variation through which narratives are reproduced at the societal level’, p. 66) in order to ‘capture qualities specific to social narratives’ (p. 6). Each of these components or layers of analysis is then sequentially addressed in Chapters 2–5, using empirical examples mainly from the Western political sphere (the area of Shenhav’s research interests), to demonstrate analytical possibilities for their study.
Chapter 2 on the story component covers issues from the role of shared stories and the text–story relationship to the role of characters in social stories. Chapter 3 explores the changing nature of text and its various versions in the context of social narratives (visual gestures, dance, silent movies, etc.), even considering the possibility of free-text narratives. It has not been demonstrated, however, that the author’s theoretical framework is suited to this kind of narrative forms. The author ends up arguing that to the extent that stories are social they must have, at some point, been transmitted through some oral or written form (p. 39). On the process of communicating the story (the narration), the discussion is focused on the ‘who’ (narrators) and ‘how’ (the process) that are part of the text (textual narration) and the social context of the narrative for its production and telling (extra-textual).
Chapter 5 explores the last component, multiplicity: social narratives are shared, told and retold in different ways and forms and through diverse media. Adding the study of this dimension is indeed crucial to capture the distinctiveness (of the mechanism of dispersion) of social narratives. To study this component, the author suggests a structural approach in order to trace core elements across the multiple versions of a social narrative. In Chapter 6, the author examines some of the growing literature on the theoretical and ideological perspectives that connect the study of social narratives to normative approaches. This discussion is essential for the analysis of social narratives as a different conception of narrative and of its relationship with lived reality, and this influences the criteria used to assess the data and the conclusions of the study. In fact, as the author points out, the question of the position a researcher has chosen to adopt in relation to the subject, participants, context and process of research will, therefore, define the specificities of the methodological approach and which of the narrative elements would be heuristically advantageous to emphasize in a particular study. It will also determine, I would add, the pertinence of the story-text-narration-multiplicity methodological device to frame the narrative object.
In the concluding chapter, the book proposes some guidelines for the application of narrative analysis in the social sciences. Shenhav emphasizes the usefulness of his fourfold framework while applying the notion of thin and thick levels of analysis derived from the work of Geertz on cultural interpretation. This chapter rounds out the book with strategies to focus or otherwise expand the investigation in different ways by emphasizing one or more narrative elements and incorporating the study of multiple narratives. Throughout the book, the author provides tables and diagrams meant as pedagogical tools.
Other well-known previous introductions to narratology, some of them acknowledged by Shenhav in this book, already include visual documents and non-canonical narratives. It is unfortunate that this introduction does not include any non-verbal example in order to illustrate the study of the four components in those widespread social narrative forms. Moreover, analyzing social narratives in today’s world often means that the researcher has to be prepared to deal with multimodal analysis. Social narratives are likely to be dispersed in the social arena in multiple forms and through different media simultaneously. This book does not provide any ground for those facing this kind of methodological dilemmas. Nevertheless, the current pluralism of narratological scholarship opens a space for a plurality of introductions. Although not particularly helpful for dealing with multimodal materials, this slim volume is presented in a comprehensive and succinct way, accomplishing its purpose for those who may be looking for an introduction to the field.