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.
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