Article published in:

Narrative Matters in Medical Contexts across Disciplines
Edited by Franziska Gygax and Miriam A. Locher
[Studies in Narrative 20] 2015
► pp. 99–116

Narratives that matter. Illness stories in the ‘third space’ of qualitative interviewing

Gabriele Lucius-Hoene

Sandra Adami

Janka Koschack

In the process of narrative interviewing in the medical field, intense relationships between interviewer and interviewee can develop and participants are often willing to reflect in a committed and multi-faceted manner about their illness experiences and their biographical meaning. Based on observations and data from the website project DIPEx (Database of Individual Patients’ Experiences), this effect of the situation of narrative interviewing is analyzed in terms of positioning and contextualization activities of interviewers aimed at deconstructing hierarchical imbalance and establishing an expert identity for the interviewee and his/her illness experiences. The evolving situation with its role changes and openness to identity work is compared with the concept of heterotopia and regarded as a deliberately created and transient ‘third space’ to explore new subject positions for the interviewees. Advantages and ethical as well as methodological dangers of this approach to interviewing are discussed.

Published online: 13 March 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/sin.20.06luc

References

Bamberg, Michael

(1997) Positioning between structure and performance. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7, 335–342.

(2011) Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity. Theory & Psychology, 21(1), 3–24.

Bamberg, Michael, De Fina, Anna, & Schiffrin, Deborah

(2011) Discourse and identity construction. In K. Luyckx, S. Schwartz & V. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research (pp. 177–199). Berlin: Springer.

Bamberg, Michael & Georgakopoulou, Alexandra

(2008) Small stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis. Text & Talk, 28, 377–396.

Bliesener, Thomas

(1980) Erzählen unerwünscht. Erzählversuche von Patienten in der Visite. In K. Ehlich (Ed.), Erzählen im Alltag (pp. 143–178). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

Bülow, Petra

(2008) ‘You have to ask a little.’ Troublesome story telling about contested illness. In L.-C. Hyden & J. Brockmeier (Eds.), Health, illness and culture: Broken narratives (pp. 131–151). New York, NY: Routledge.

Charon, Rita

(2006) Narrative medicine: Honoring the stories of illness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Czarniawska, Barbara

(2004) Narratives in social science research. London: Sage.

Davies, Bronwyn, & Harré, Rom

(1990) Positioning: The discursive construction of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20, 43–63.

De Fina, Anna, & Georgakopoulou, Alexandra

(2012) Analyzing narrative. Discourse and sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Deppermann, Arnulf

(2013a) Editorial: Positioning in narrative interaction. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 1–15.

(2013b) How to get a grip on identities-in-interaction. (What) does ‘positioning’ offer more than ‘membership categorization’? Evidence from a mock story. Narrative Inquiry, 23(1), 62–88.

Foucault, Michel

(1986) Of other spaces. Diacritics, 16(1), 22–27.

Frank, Arthur

(1995) The wounded story teller. Body, illness, and ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

(2010) Letting stories breathe. A socio-narratology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Georgakopoulou, Alexandra

(2007) Small stories, interaction and identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gumperz, John J.

(1992) Contextualization and understanding. In A. Duranti & Ch. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (pp. 229–252). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hawkins, Anne Hunsaker

(1993) Reconstructing illness: Studies in pathography. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.

Health Experiences Research Group

(2014) Researchers’ handbook healthtalkonline modules (Version 31). Unpublished manuscript.

Herxheimer, Andrew, & Ziebland, Sue

(2008) Das DIPEx-Projekt: Eine systematische Sammlung persönlicher Krankheitserfahrungen. Neurologische Rehabilitation, 14(1), 31–40.

Hetherington, Kevin

(1996) Identity formation, space and social centrality. Theory Culture Society, 13(4), 33–52.

(1998) Expressions of identity. Space, performance, politics. London: Sage.

Hoefert, Hans-Wolfgang, & Klotter, Christoph

(Eds.) (2011) Wandel der Patientenrolle: Neue Interaktionsformen im Gesundheitswesen. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

Hollway, Wendy, & Jefferson, Tony

(2013) Doing qualitative research differently: A psychosocial approach (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Hyden, Lars-Christer, & Brockmeier, Jens

(2008) Health, culture and illness: Broken narratives. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kraus, Wolfgang

(2013) The quest for a third space. Heterotopic self-positioning and narrative identity. In C. Holler & M. Klepper (Eds.), Rethinking narrative identity. Persona and perspective. Studies in narrative 17 (pp. 69–83). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kvale, Steinar

(1996) InterViews. An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lucius-Hoene, Gabriele

(2002) Narrative Bewältigung und Coping-Forschung. Psychotherapie und Sozialwissenschaft, 4, 166–203.

(2012) Das Leben mit der Krankheit: Chronisch Kranke erzählen. Berliner Ärzte, 2, 29–31.

Lucius-Hoene, Gabriele, & Deppermann, Arnulf

(2004). Rekonstruktion narrativer Identität. Ein Arbeitsbuch zur Analyse narrativer Interviews. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

(2008) Levels of positioning in narrative interaction. Paper presented at Georgetown Round Table of Language and Linguistics on Telling Stories. Building Bridges among Language, Narrative, Identity, Society, Interaction and culture. Washington, DC, March 14–16, 2008.

Lucius-Hoene, Gabriele, Groth, Susanne, Becker, Anne-Kathrin, Dvorak, Fabian, Breuning, Martina, & Himmel, Wolfgang

(2013) Wie erleben Patienten die Veröffentlichung ihrer Krankheitserfahrungen im Internet? Rehabilitation, 52, 196–201.

Lucius-Hoene, Gabriele, Thiele, Ulrike, Breuning, Martina, & Haug, Stephanie

(2012) Doctors’ voices in patients’ narratives: Coping with emotions in storytelling. Chronic Illness, 8, 163–175.

McAdams, Dan

(2006) The redemptive self. Stories Americans live by. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mishler, Elliott G.

(1986) Research interviewing. Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Rogers, Carl

(1951) Client-centered psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

Nelson, Hilde. L.

(Ed.) (1997) Stories and their limits. Narrative approaches to bioethics. New York, NY: Routledge.

Stein, Michael

(2007) The lonely patient. How we experience illness. New York, NY: William Morrow/Harper Collins.

Toombs, S. Kay

(1993) The meaning of illness. A phenomenological account of the different perspectives of physician and patient. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Wengraf, Tom

(2001) Qualitative research interviewing: Biographic narrative and semi-structured methods. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Williams, Simon J.

(2005) Parsons revisited: from the sick role to...? Health, 9(2), 123–144.

Wortham, Stanton

(2001) Narratives in action. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Ziebland, Sue

(2013) Narrative interviewing. In S. Ziebland, A. Coulter, J.D. Calabrese & L. Locock (Eds.), Understanding and using health experiences: Improving patient care (pp. 38–48). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cited by

Cited by other publications

Gülich, Elisabeth

2017. In Erzählen, ► pp. 140 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 june 2020. 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.