Cover not available
Article published In:
Methodology of Narrative Study: What the first thirty years of Narrative Inquiry have revealed
Edited by Allyssa McCabe and Dorien Van De Mieroop
[Narrative Inquiry 31:1] 2021
► pp. 4–27

The Narrative Dimensions Model and an exploration of various narrative genres

ORCID logo | KU Leuven
In the last few decades, the analytical scope of narrative studies has widened from a sole focus on “prototypical” narratives of personal experience to a wide variety of narrative genres. However interesting this may be, there are also some problems with these genres as there is not only sometimes considerable overlap between different genres, but there are also differences within these genres. Furthermore, real-life stories often consist of a mix of various genres, which makes applying genre-labels to these narratives problematic. Hence, instead of making such genre classifications, I propose an abstract “Narrative Dimensions Model” to tease out the relevant characteristics of and differences between various types of narratives. This model consists of two three-dimensional clusters, viz., one revolving around the narrator and containing the dimensions of ownership, authorship and tellership, and one revolving around the narrated events, containing the dimensions of frequency, time and evaluation. I illustrate this by a theoretical exploration of various narrative genres and I conclude by sketching the advantages of conceptualizing and scrutinizing narratives by means of this model.
Keywords: Narrative Dimensions Model, narrative genres, ownership, authorship, tellership, frequency, time, evaluation
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Starting point
  • Operationalization: The Narrative Dimensions Model
  • Narrative dimensions in relation to non-canonical narratives
  • Narrator
    • Dimension of ownership
    • Dimension of authorship
    • Dimension of tellership
  • Narrated events
    • Dimension of frequency
    • Dimension of time
    • Dimension of evaluation
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 28 July 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19069.van
References (69)
References
Atkinson, P., & Delamont, S. (2006). Rescuing narrative from qualitative research. Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 164–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, M. (1986). The Problem of Speech Genres. In C. Emerson & M. Holquist (Eds.), Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (pp. 60–102). Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M. (2006). Stories: Big or small; Why do we care? Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 139–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baynham, M. (2006). Performing self, narrative and community in Moroccan narratives of migration and settlement. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and Identity (pp. 376–397). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Briggs, C., & Bauman, R. (1992). Genre, intertextuality, and social power. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2(2), 131–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carranza, I. E. (1998). Low-Narrativity Narratives and Argumentation. Narrative Inquiry, 8(2), 287–317. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015). Narrating and Arguing; From Plausibility to Local Moves. In A. De Fina & A. Georgakopoulou (Eds.), The Handbook of Narrative Analysis (pp. 57–75). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Chang, C.-J., & McCabe, A. (2013). Evaluation in Mandarin Chinese children’s personal narratives. In A. McCabe & C.-J. Chang (Eds.), Chinese Language Narration: Culture, cognition, and emotion (pp. 33–56). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheshire, J., & Ziebland, S. (2005). Narrative as a resource in accounts of the experience of illness. In J. Thornborrow & J. Coates (Eds.), The Sociolinguistics of Narrative (pp. 17–40). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clifton, J., Schnurr, S., & Van De Mieroop, D. (2020). The Language of Leadership Narratives: A Social Practice Perspective. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Clifton, J., & Van De Mieroop, D. (2016). Master Narratives, Identities, and the Stories of Former Slaves. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Fina, A. (2003). Identity in Narrative, A study of Immigrant Discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Fina, A., & Georgakopoulou, A. (2008). Analysing narratives as practices. Qualitative Research, 8(3), 379–387. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Fina, A., & Perrino, S. (Eds.). (2017). Storytelling in the Digital Age: New challenges [Special issue]. Narrative Inquiry, 27(2).Google Scholar
Freeman, M. (2006). Life “on holiday”? In defense of big stories. Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 131–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A. (2001). Arguing about the Future: On Indirect Disagreements in Conversations. Journal of Pragmatics, 33(12), 1881–1900. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2002). Narrative and identity management: discourse and social identities in a tale of tomorrow. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 35(4), 427–451. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006). Thinking big with small stories in narrative and identity analysis. Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 122–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007). Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E. (1979). Footing. Semiotica, 25(1/2), 1–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, C. (1984). Notes on story structure and organization of participation. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 225–246). London/New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hanks, W. F. (1987). Discourse Genres in a Theory of Practice. American Ethnologist, 14(4), 668–692. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hyon, S. (1996). Genre in Three Traditions: Implications for ESL. TESOL quarterly, 30(4), 693–722. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hyvärinen, M. (2015). Analyzing narrative genres. In A. De Fina & A. Georgakopoulou (Eds.), The Handbook of Narrative Analysis (pp. 178–193). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hyvärinen, M., Hydén, L.-C., Saarenheimon, M., & Tamboukoun, M. (2010). Beyond narrative coherence: An introduction. In M. Hyvärinen, L.-C. Hydén, M. Saarenheimon & M. Tamboukoun (Eds.), Beyond narrative coherence (pp. 1–15). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, B. (2001). Discourse analysis and Narrative. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen & H. Hamilton (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 635–649). Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kitagawa, C., & Lehrer, A. (1990). Impersonal uses of personal pronouns. Journal of Pragmatics, 14(5), 739–759. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W. (1982). Speech Actions and Reactions in Personal Narrative. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk (pp. 219–247). Georgetown University Press: Washington DC.Google Scholar
(2011). Narratives of Personal Experience. In P. Hogan (Ed.), Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences (pp. 546–548). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1966). Narrative Analysis: oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts (pp. 12–44). Seattle: Universiy of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Lerner, G. H. (1992). Assisted storytelling: Deploying shared knowledge as a practical matter. Qualitative Sociology, 15(3), 247–271. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Linde, C. (1993). Life Stories: The creation of coherence. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mandelbaum, J. (1987). Couples sharing stories. Communication Quarterly, 35(2), 144–170. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2008). Genre Relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Minami, M., & McCabe, A. (1995). Rice balls and bear hunts: Japanese and North American family narrative patterns. Journal of Child Language, 22(2), 423–445. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Minister, K. (1991). A Feminist Frame for the Oral History Interview. In S. Berger Gluck & D. Patai (Eds.), Women’s Words: the feminist practice of oral history (pp. 27–42). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Norrick, N. R. (2000). Conversational narrative: Storytelling in everyday talk. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004). Humor, tellability, and conarration in conversational storytelling. Text, 24(1), 79–111. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2005). The dark side of tellability. Narrative Inquiry, 15(2), 323–343. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007). Conversational storytelling. In D. Herman (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Narrative (pp. 127–141). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013a). Narratives of vicarious experience in conversation. Language in Society, 42(4), 385–406. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013b). Stories of vicarious experience in speeches by Barack Obama. Narrative Inquiry, 23(2), 283–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2018). Negation in narrative: Why say what didn’t happen? Narrative Inquiry, 28(2), 373–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Connor, P. E. (1994). ‘You could feel it through the skin’: Agency and positioning in prisoners’ stabbing stories. Text, 14(1), 45–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ochs, E., & Capps, L. (2001). Living narrative: Creating lives in everyday storytelling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Page, R. (2010). Re-examining narrativity: small stories in status updates. Text & Talk, 30(4), 423–444. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Page, R., Harper, R., & Frobenius, M. (2013). From small stories to networked narrative: The evolution of personal narratives in Facebook status updates. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 192–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C., & McCabe, A. (1983). Developmental Psycholinguistics: Three Ways of Looking at a Child’s Narrative. New York: Plenum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prince, G. (1982). Narratology. The form and functioning of narrative. Berlin: Mouton Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1992). Narrative as theme. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Riessman, C. K. (1993). Narrative analysis. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Sacks, H. (1986). On the analyzability of stories by children. In J. J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (Eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics: the ethnography of communication (pp. 325–345). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
(1992). Lectures on Conversation (2 vols, edited by Gail Jefferson with introduction by Emanuel A. Schegloff). Oxford, UK/Cambridge, USA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Shuman, A. (2005). Other People’s Stories: Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy. Urbana Il.: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
(2015). Story ownership and entitlement. In A. De Fina & A. Georgakopoulou (Eds.), The Handbook of Narrative Analysis (pp. 38–56). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stirling, L., & Manderson, L. (2011). About you: Empathy, objectivity and authority. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(6), 1581–1602. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Toolan, M. J. (2001). Narrative: A Critical Linguistic Introduction (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Trinch, S. L. (2003). Latinas’ Narratives of Domestic Abuse: Discrepant Versions of Violence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van De Mieroop, D. (2011). Identity negotiations in narrative accounts about poverty. Discourse & Society, 22(5), 565–591. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015). Social Identity Theory and the Discursive Analysis of Collective Identities in Narratives. In A. De Fina & A. Georgakopoulou (Eds.), The Handbook of Narrative Analysis (pp. 408–428). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
(2019). Implying identities through narratives of vicarious experience in job interviews. Journal of Pragmatics, 1521, 61–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(forthcoming). Applying the Narrative Dimensions Model. VAKKI Publications 11, Workplace Communication III. Available at: [URL]
(2016). Life Stories. In J.-O. Östman & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Handbook of Pragmatics (pp. 1–20). Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van De Mieroop, D., Miglbauer, M., & Chatterjee, A. (2017). Mobilizing master narratives through categorical narratives and categorical statements when default identities are at stake. Discourse & Communication, 11(2), 179–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vindrola-Padros, C., & Johnson, G. A. (2014). The Narrated, Nonnarrated, and the Disnarrated: Conceptual Tools for Analyzing Narratives in Health Services Research. Qualitative Health Research, 24(11), 1603–1611. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (19)

Cited by 19 other publications

Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte
2024. Narrating organisational identity. Narrative Inquiry 34:1 ► pp. 30 ff. DOI logo
Shu, Jack
2024. An Autoethnography of Teaching Drama to Student Teachers in Hong Kong. Education Sciences 14:8 ► pp. 835 ff. DOI logo
Yang, Yang
2024. “By whom was I left behind?”. Narrative Inquiry 34:1 ► pp. 53 ff. DOI logo
Al-Khulaifi, Afra & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2023. Othering the expat majority: Qatari junior academics’ identity work at the interface of migration and institutional reform. Language and Intercultural Communication 23:2 ► pp. 167 ff. DOI logo
Al-Khulaifi, Afra & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2024. “Why not the thoub and the abaya?” An interactional sociolinguistic approach to the interplay between nationality, gender, and professional identity in the Qatari academic workplace. Journal of Arabic Sociolinguistics 2:1 ► pp. 94 ff. DOI logo
Bergroth, Mari, Júlia Llompart-Esbert, Nathalie Pepiot, Sven Sierens, Tjaša Dražnik & Karin Van Der Worp
2023. Whose action research is it?: Promoting linguistically sensitive teacher education in Europe. Educational Action Research 31:2 ► pp. 265 ff. DOI logo
Farzin Abdehgah, Ehsan, Sayedeh Babooneh Rastgooyan & Mohammadjavad Khadivi
2023. A bibliometric study of organizational storytelling/narrative research. Journal of Design, Business & Society 9:2 ► pp. 221 ff. DOI logo
Kilger, Magnus
2023. Psychologizing childhood in the reality show Biggest Loser. Narrative Inquiry 33:1 ► pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
Naborn, Lars, Dorien Van De Mieroop & Eline Zenner
2023. Emotion in multivarietal family language policy in Flanders. International Journal of Bilingualism 27:2 ► pp. 181 ff. DOI logo
Satti, Ignacio
2023. When it’s “now or never”. Narrative Inquiry 33:1 ► pp. 222 ff. DOI logo
Stavridou, Anastasia, Haiyan Huang, Kim Schoofs, Stephanie Schnurr & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2023. Negotiating identities in stories of anti-Chinese racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Language, Culture and Society 5:1 ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Goodnight, Melissa Rae
2022. “We went in favor of rebellion”: The decisions that made India’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). International Journal of Educational Development 94 ► pp. 102656 ff. DOI logo
Grove, Nicola
2022. Exploring Narrative Competence of Persons with Severe Intellectual Disabilities: Insights from Complementary Inclusive Analytic Frameworks. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 24:1 ► pp. 224 ff. DOI logo
Koester, Almut
2022. Small stories in short interactions. Narrative Inquiry 32:1 ► pp. 86 ff. DOI logo
McCabe, Allyssa & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2022. Editorial. Narrative Inquiry 32:2 ► pp. 245 ff. DOI logo
Van De Mieroop, Dorien, Jonathan Clifton & Stephanie Schnurr
2022. Narratives as social practice in organisational contexts. Narrative Inquiry 32:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Veselovsky, Anna & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
2022. Linguistic variation in customer reviews. Register Studies 4:2 ► pp. 288 ff. DOI logo
Rolón-Dow, Rosalie & Michelle J. Bailey
2021. Insights on Narrative Analysis from a Study of Racial Microaggressions and Microaffirmations. American Journal of Qualitative Research 6:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Schoofs, Kim & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2021. Epistemic competitions over Jewish Holocaust survivors’ stories in interviews. Discourse & Society 32:6 ► pp. 728 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.