Narrative analysis

Narrative analysis or research or refers to any study that analyses narrative materials.

Narrative materials can consist of:

• ‘naturally occurring’ narratives
• oral life stories collected for research purposes
• written narratives found in the private, public or political realms

One of the main stated reasons for why so many social scientists are interested in studying narratives is because narrative is a basic human way of making sense of the world.

Focus of narrative analysis

Narrative analysis mainly focuses on written or oral texts, but can also be used to analyse photographs, films or even dance performances.

Because narrative analysis is inherently interdisciplinary, the field is relatively disparate and there is no one single method of analysis that narrative researchers use.

Current popularity

The current popularity of narrative analysis is largely due to the ‘narrative’ or ‘linguistic’ turn in the social sciences. This has brought about a renewed interest in the role that language plays in social interaction and society: language is not neutral but rather is a means to accomplish social ends and is thus implicated in structures of power.

Such an interpretive approach does not seek to analyse narratives in order to access underlying events but rather focuses on meaning making.

Much of narrative analysis is based on the notion that how experiences are reconstructed and interpreted is important in itself.