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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. 97–125

Positioning with master and counter-narratives

ORCID logo | Tampere University
| Tampere University
| Tampere University

Narrative studies have witnessed a growing interest towards positioning analyses and the analysis of master and counter-narratives. While the former tends to prefer a small story approach and to draw on Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis, the latter engages in a variety of methodological approaches and works with narratives of several sizes, often within institutional and political contexts. Counter-narrative is a positional category by name, and it has recently been brought together with positioning analysis in the study of oral narratives. However, the narrative nature of master narratives, as well as their conceptual distinction from dominant discourses, remains largely unaddressed. This article aims at placing master narratives within narrative theory. To that end, we consider the three analytical levels of narrative positioning in terms of master and counter-narratives. By analysing an interview with a 92-year-old Finnish woman, we argue for the empirical relevance of master and counter-narratives within positioning analysis.

Keywords: master and counter-narrative, positioning, canonicity, narrative contestation
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Master and counter-narratives – an asymmetric pair?
  • The levels of positioning
  • Positioning within an interview
  • Contesting stories: The husband as a handsome man and a disappointment
  • The narrative contest: A good father, but a husband who wasn’t healthy
  • Master and counter-narratives in contest
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 February 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.20014.hyv
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