Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar

l’Université de la Manouba (Tunisia)

LACE Winter School 2015

The Uses of Narrative

University of Groningen

Applied NarratologyNarrative Journalism, Narrative Career Counselling

and the Narrative Interview

Narratology beyond the arts

Storytelling has become

buzz word

Narratologists can make

valuable contribution

This lecture about uses

of narrative in:

Journalism

Career counselling

Sociological research

Greimas: six roles/four stages

Narrative schema:

1. Manipulation stage

2. Competence stage

3. Performance stage

4. Sanction stage

Actantial model:

From theory to poetics Originally: analysis of narrative deep structure

Applied: great as backbone for narrative

journalism

Narrative career counselling

(Huisman & Moenandar, 2014)

Small research on

student career

counselling

Usually top down

(STARR, SWOT,

SMART)

Students hated it

Alternative: narrative

reflection

Experience starting point

(bottom up)

Career counselling at UAS’s

Students very calculating

Panopticum (Foucault)

Internalise ideal of growth

and innovation

Our alternative: narrative

career counselling

Using Greimas (four

stages/six roles)

Result: life writing (stories of

‘becoming’)

A typology for stories of becoming

(Based on Bakhtin, 1986)

From: Moenandar & Huisman, 2015

Story of growth (Bildungsroman)

1. Manipulation stage Main character doesn’t ‘fit’

2. Competence stage Reflection on self

3. Performance stage Find oneself and one’s place in the

world

4. Sanction stage Main character found him/herself

and his/her place

Novel of ordeal

1. Manipulation stage Main character faces ordeal (internal or

external)

2. Competence stage Finding strength (internal: e.g.

praying/meditation; external: e.g. magic

sword)

3. Performance stage Overcome ordeal (internal e.g. resist

temptation; external: e.g. slay the

dragon)

4. Sanction stage Reward

Picaresque

1. Manipulation stage Conflict picaroon & outside world

2. Competence stage Picaroon comes up with a scheme/trick

3. Performance stage Performance of scheme/trick

4. Sanction stage Stupidy/corruption of society is

‘shown’

Epos

1. Manipulation stage Main character faces situation for which

his whole life has prepared him,

2. Competence stage Can be anything (planning the

revolution, gathering an army, come up

with a plan, etc.)

3. Performance stage Problem is solved

4. Sanction stage Main character was the right person at

the right time.

Three stages of narrative career

counselling

1. Subject writes career

narrative after instruction

in four stages/six roles

2. Dialogue between career

coach and subject with

the typology as a starting

point

3. Subject re-writes the

career narrative,

integrating the dialogue

of stage 2.

The structured narrative interview

(Basten & Moenandar, in process)

The structured narrative

interview:

Four stages/six roles as matrix

for interview questions

(handout)

Assumptions

1. Plot is an action: emplotment

(Ricoeur)

2. Stories are not like diamonds

in a mine, waiting to be

excavated

3. Emplotment happens in a

context (here: co-creation

interviewer and interviewee)

The structured narrative interview. Case study:

experiences with racism in contemporary Dutch society

1. Start with deciding on

one experience

2. Interviewee recounts

experience

3. Question matrix used to

fill in ‘the blanks’ Questions adapted to interview

Questions asked according to

‘flow’ of the interview

4. So far: successful

5. Interviews: very natural

Narrative career coaching + the

Narrative interview

Combination would work

very well

Besides (career) coaching &

sociology:

PR & communication

Teaching

Social work

Consultancy

Marketing

Etc.

Thank you for your attention.

Questions?

Powerpoint will be published through Twitter (@SJMoenandar)

Works cited:

Bakhtin, Mikhail M. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.

Basten, Floor & Moenandar, Sjoerd-Jeroen. “The Structured Narrative Interview” (working title) (in

process).

Huisman, Krina & Moenandar, Sjoerd-Jeroen. “Helden, groeiers, strijders en schelmen. Een opzet

voor narratieve studieloopbaanbegeleiding”, in: F. Meijers, K. Mittendorf & G. Wijers, Het

onzekere voor het zekere. Kwetsbaarheid als kracht in loopbaandialogen. Antwerpen: Garant, 2014.

Meneghelli, Donata. Storie proprio così. Il racconto nell’era della narratività totale. Milaan: Morellini editore,

2013.

Moenandar, Sjoerd-Jeroen & Huisman, Krina. “Storytelling as a Tool for Student Career Counselling”,

in: Nicole Miller & Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar (red.), Not Ever Absent. Storytelling in Arts,

Culture, and Identity Formation. Oxford: Inter-disciplinary Press, 2015 (in press).

Prince, Gerald. Revisiting Narrativity. In Grünzweig, W. & Solbach, A. (red.), Grenzüberschreitungen.

Narratologie im Kontext. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1999. Pp. 43-51.

Ricoeur, Paul. Time and Narrative. Volume 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.