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’)
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.