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Article published In:
Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 27:1 (2017) ► pp.109–131

Multimodal life history narrative

Embodied identity, discursive transitions and uncomfortable silences

| Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK

I draw together multimodal and creative art practices with sociological and discursive research frameworks to detail how multimodal interviewing facilitates communication of individual narratives. I offer a route for researching how embodied self-production emerges by asking: What can be learnt from analysing the context and process of narrative accounts rather than the content? Consideration is given to how a drawn visual line influences the narrative progress by inviting diverse, active and embodied engagement, while highlighting issues that participants prioritise. Attention is also given to how self-recognition and the production of identity become apparent in moments that punctuate a narrator’s story-telling. These moments are identified as discursive transitions and include switches in style or topic of conversation, expressions of emotion, pauses and extended silences. These transitions are conceptualised as examples of a ‘structuring presence’ within a narrative, and I explore how these are central to the embodied production of self-identity.

Keywords: multimodal narratives, discursive transitions, silence, embodied identity
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Framing life history narrative research
    • Multimodal interviews
    • The participants, data collection and analysis
  • Constructing identity in multimodal narrative interviews
    • Visuality and bodily engagement: “This is sort of me. One line of me”
    • Discursive transitions; emotion and the importance of what is not said
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 3 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.27.1.06woo
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