1. Narrative and everyday life
Studying subjectivity as embedded in its social context
Narrative and everyday life
In my 10 minutes reflection on narrative and everyday life, I would like to refer to a narrative approach we recently used to study subjectivity as embedded in its social an cultural context. This approach started from the ideas of Molly and colleagues who stated that narrative research challenges the dualism between individual and society.
Doing Narrative Research
October 18th, 2013

2. The rhizome: An alternative story notion
Narrative research makes it possible to locate the self as a psychosocial phenomenon, and subjectivity can be seen as discursively constructed yet still as active and effective. The individual and social are constructed in relation to each other, not in the outer realm of society and culture, nor in the inner realm of the personal, but in a distinct psychosocial zone.
(Andrews, Sclater, Squire, & Treacher, 2004)
Narrative research makes it possible to locate the self as a psychosocial phenomenon, and subjectivity as discursively constructed yet still as active. The individual and social are constructed in relation to each other, not in the outer realm of society and culture, nor in the inner realm of the personal, but in a distinct psychosocial zone (Andrews, Sclater, Squire, & Treacher, 2004).
To investigate subjectivity from this psychosocial zone, we opted to focus on the narrator’s voice, not as a metaphor but as a physical and physiological embodied entity by which thoughts and feelings are expressed to an audience. This focus on the voice as physically and physiologically embodied allowed us to consider and study the narrator’s voice as both an expression and a performance.
The rhizome: An alternative story notion

3. The narrator’s voice Expression Performance
The voice as an expression refers to Andersen’s description:

4. The voice as an expression
Every word and expressed emotion are emitted by exhaling a stream of air, which is produced by the muscles in the abdominal wall and lower part of the back, modulated by the larynx, and acted on by the muscles of the tongue, the lips, the palate, the jaws, and the nose. The activities of these muscles interfere with the stream of air, transforming it in the formation of consonants, vowels, words, and meaning. On the other hand, tensions in the body and those muscles are related to obstructing the free flow of air, and inhibiting and influencing the process of generating meaning.
(Andersen, 1992)
Every word and expressed emotion are emitted by exhaling a stream of air, which is produced by the muscles in the abdominal wall and lower part of the back, modulated by the larynx, and acted on by the muscles of the tongue, the lips, the palate, the jaws, and the nose. The activities of these muscles interfere with the stream of air, transforming it in the formation of consonants, vowels, words, and meaning. On the other hand, tensions in the body and those muscles are related to obstructing the free flow of air, and inhibiting and influencing the process of generating meaning.

5. The narrator’s voice Expression Performance
Not as a reflection of the inner world, but as a constitution of experiences and aspirations in the moment of narrating.
Performance
Considering a narrator’s voice as a physiologically embodied process allowed us to study the narrative not as a reflection of the inner world, but as a constitution of experiences and aspirations in the moment of narrating.
Moreover, inspired by the Listening Guide of Carol Gilligan we considered the narrator’s voice not as singular…

6. The singular narrating voice
but as a polyphony of voices

7. Polyphony of voices
A person’s expressed experiences are considered as embedded in many inter-related voices. Simultaneous voices are expressing different aspects of the multiple constitution and presentation of the experiential world. These simultaneous voices are related to one another, to the voices of others, and to the context and culture within which the person lives.

8. The narrator’s voice Expression Performance
Not as a reflection of the inner world, but as a constitution of experiences and aspirations in the moment of narrating.
Not as a singular narrating voice, but as a polyphony of different voices in which the narrator presents her/himself across those voices.
In which subjectivity is continuously and multifariously (re)constructed in response to the social and cultural context, in terms of: 1) Grammatical positioning within the social context. 2) The different audiences that are directed to.
Moreover, a narrative is not just viewed as an expression that constitutes the narrator’s experiences and aspirations, but at the same time, as a performance that constructs the inner world at the moment of narrating (Riessman, 2002; 2008). This shift from narrative as a reflection into a construction of the inner world - in the moment of narrating - emphasizes the embedment of subjectivity in its relational context.
In other words, the narrating voice as a social performance enabled us to connect and embed the polyphony of different voices in its social cultural context. It allowed us to study subjectivity as continuously reconstructed, in response to the social and cultural context, in terms of:
1) Grammatical positioning within the social context. 2) The different audiences that are directed to.
Listening Guide
Carol Gilligan

9. Reading for the pronoun voices
Considering all pronoun voices (I-voices, we-voices, one-voices, other-versus-me voices, passive and active forms…) offered us an opportunity to locate subjectivity into the social or discursive context.
The narrating voice could be approached as negotiating subjectivity in terms of ‘moral’ positions within the rules of life of local cultures and discourses’
(Harré, 1989; Burr, 2003)
By studying the grammatical positioning of the narrating voice, the experiantial expression of polyphonic voices was opened up into its social context. Taking into consideration all pronoun voices (I-voices, we-voices, one-voices, other-versus-me voices, passive and active forms…) offered us an opportunity to locate subjectivity into the social or discursive context. The narrating voice could be approached as negotiating subjectivity in terms of ‘moral’ positions within the rules of life of local cultures and
Discourses’ (Harré, 1989; Burr, 2003).

10. The narrator’s voice Expression Performance
Not as a reflection of the inner world, but as a constitution of experiences and aspirations in the moment of narrating.
Not as a singular narrating voice, but as a polyphony of different voices in which the narrator represents her/himself across those voices.
In which subjectivity is continuously and multifariously (re)constructed in response to the social and cultural context, in terms of: 1) Grammatical positioning within the social context. 2) The different audiences that are directed to.
Considering the different audiences, we have been inspired by the work of Maria Tamboukou (2010), who investigated narratives as events - as responses to life instead of representations of life. This idea of stories as performances in terms of responses supported us in not decontextualizing narratives by vertically looking beyond or behind the surface of the text with the aim to uncover real facts, experiences or a core self.
When considering stories as performances responding to life instead of a representation they are horizontally connected with each other and more broadly with socio-cultural discourses and practices.
Listening Guide
Carol Gilligan
Deleuze’s event approach
Maria Tamboukou

11. Reading for the audience voices
New things to happen
Communication to come
The yet to come
Forces that make change
Moreover, based on the work of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze ( ), Tamboukou considered an event not only in terms of a response, but also as opening up new things to happen, communication to come, the yet to come, forces that make change.

12. Reading for the audience voices
An event has no present, but is the object of a double question: What has just happened? And, what is going to happen?
Narrating is no longer a state of being, but becomes a plane for the emergence of other becoming. It makes new things happen.
An event has no present, but is the object of a double question: What has just happened? And, what is going to happen? Based on this perception of narrative as an event in Deleuzian terms, narrating is no longer a state of being, but becomes a plane for the emergence of other becoming. It makes new things happen.

13. Two questions to expand voices
1. To whom or to what is the narrator responding at the moment?
2. Which new meanings, audiences, and possible ways to continue the narrating process are generated at the moment?
Using those both perceptions of narrative – as a response and as generating new meanings to become – we investigated the narrator’s voice as continuously responding to the social context: (1) To whom or to what is he or she responding at that
moment? And (2) Which new meanings audiences, and possible ways to continue are generated at that moment? Both questions allowed us to outline the impact of the interview context, but also to distinguish other audiences, such as persons not involved in the conversation, social institutions and broader socio-cultural discourses.

14. When studying narratives from the narrator’s physiologically embedded voice as a continuously expression and performance of subjectivity in context, narratives seem to become everyday life?