Archives narrative - Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services

The Culture of Competition in Modern liberal Societies (25th February)

Emma Parfitt — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 10:45:00 +0000

Professor Johnathan Hearn came to speak, at the University of Warwick, about power and the role of competition in society.

‘Competition is part of the deep structure of how society is organised,’ he said. ‘I am not a supporter of competition. I used to be a musician and thought I would escape the constant competition over gigs by working in the ivory tower of academia. Of course competition kept chasing after me!’

Hearn discussed competition as rituals that may or may not succeed. Competition between belief-making institutions may be responsible, in part, for the dissemination of certain ideologies in society. Of course because my research interest is stories I probably ignored his real message and began to make connects of stories-competition.

isn’t a new concept. It is an historical point of view, as Winston Churchill said ‘History is written by the victors.’ Whether through news stories, education, or reality TV like I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here! These forms of story as society’s narratives may be feeding back to anyone watching or listening that competition is a “natural” part of society.

Hearn points out, the word competitive relating to the characteristic of a person didn’t exist until the mid-18^th century (I hope I remembered accurately). Is it then a socially influenced phenomenon?

Say narratives are competing all the time… in this way they might contribute to social stability or social change. Certain ideologies would be reinforced as “the norm” and others frowned upon, in different ways in different societies. I doubt that society is structured around competition on its own, and this isn’t what Hearn was trying to say. He acknowledged the difficulties of separating competition from other factors that contribute to the complexity of our social world. And anti-competitive individuals also have to be considered, although as beings there is an element of competing for resources that we cannot escape. Especially in the academic world when it comes to funding. Should we be funding the best competitors who may hold very conventional and therefore definable ideas, or should we fund the ideas. Now there’s a thought.

L’article The Culture of Competition in Modern liberal Societies (25th February) est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

Emma Parfitt — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 11:30:00 +0000

‘life should be until you die’

Stated Felicity (Parfitt 2013a line. 87).

[Photo by Null Value at Flickr.com]

From an initial analysis of my focus groups young people seem to be aware of conformist and nonconformist elements in the stories—such as the compulsion to accept social “norms” and values—along with other potentially influential narratives such as media, film, television, video games, books, the internet, and education. I found it interesting that in the all-girls school Group One related the content of the stories to crime and how to treat other people. In week one whilst talking about the story MacCodram (MacIntyre 2012) the group’s conversation revolved around crime before they even reached my focus group question about conformist and nonconformist elements that they recognised in the story (lines. 82-91),

Mary I know this is getting off the subject a bit but if you murder someone you get ten years

RES If you murder someone you get a life sentence

Felicity A life sentence is about twenty-five years

Paris It’s not good enough

Felicity A life should be until you die

Paris You can get bailed out before then because if you’re good you’re allowed

Felicity If your family have enough money

Paris Yeah but and you’re let out if you’re good

Mary You shouldn’t do it though, just do your time

Two of girls in this group, Mary and Felicity, shared in their final interviews that they want to join the police force (Parfitt 2013c). Mary’s mum is a teacher and her step-dad works in the army perhaps explaining her strong stance on crime. Felicity’s mum works in school administration. What her father does is unknown but she does say that ‘I love CSI,’ and is knowledgeable about things happening the news (Parfitt 2013a line. 132). So TV and media may be influential on her desire to join the police force (though Felicity’s first choice is to be a vet). A little while later the group’s conversation returned to crime as Felicity mentioned up the case of a homeless man that was on the news, Felicity, Heidi and Mary explain what happened to Paris (Parfitt 2013a lines. 158-176),

Paris When? Where?

Mary A homeless man got beat up by three teenagers

Heidi They got dared

Mary A twelve year old, a thirteen year old and a seventeen year old

Paris They got dared?

Heidi They got dared to kill a homeless man

Mary They were dared to kill this man. They beat him up and then

Felicity Dared, saying I dare you to go kill that man

Mary No, they beat him up first, then they walked away, and their friend makes like, I bet you couldn’t finish him off and they were like, yeah, and then they battered him to death. The twelve year old didn’t do anything. He stood and watched. But he still got something like five years, three years for it

Felicity He got six years. Yeah, my teacher told me this, the homeless man, eye socket was missing, that’s how much damage they gave to him

Paris You what?

Mary His eye socket was missing, that’s how badly they

Felicity The seventeen year old who did most of the work, he only got ten years

Mary He should have got like twenty-five, he should have got murder

Felicity He should have got life

Note how Mary and Felicity relate all the facts of the case; it makes sense that they would take an interest when considering police work. Read the news story here: BBC News. Mary in particular as the police force is her first choice narrates what happened in order. Justice is very important to the group in a conservative way, they share a ‘do your time’ attitude that Mary expressed earlier (line. 91).

[Photo by Brim216974 on flickr.com]

The way people treat other people is also very important to this group, as Mary summaries in week two conformative to her means things that are ‘Illegal’ or ‘common decency rules’ (Parfitt 2013b line. 128). An example would be the way the husband treated the wife in Moon Bear. They see this as nonconformative to the way a woman expects to be treated by her husband (lines. 130-141),

Mary I reckon the nonconformative was probably the way the husband treated the wife, it wasn’t very nice. I wouldn’t have put up with that

Felicity I’d be like, get out my house now

Mary Well he wasn’t in it in the first place

Felicity Get out my forest

Paris Get out my life

Heidi What about conformative though?

Mary I guess you could say that the wife was conformative because she

Heidi Cared for him

Mary Cared for, yeah

Heidi She tried everything that she could

Felicity To get him back into the house

In relation to conformity the group also discusses appearances.

‘You’re not the same person than you are with nothing on’

Says Heidi (Parfitt 2013a line. 254). The way they describe makeup in relation to themselves, the way they describe others, a lot of it is visual. Make-up is seen as a surface act, a mask ‘When you’ve got your makeup off you tend to look at yourself in the mirror and you don’t usually see the same person that you do with makeup, when you’ve always got a disguise on’ (Heidi 250-253).

Heidi wears a bit of make-up but doesn’t ‘plaster my face in it’ (257), Felicity wears it ‘sometimes’ (260), while Mary says ‘I only put mascara on but I’m not wearing any today’ (266). The most obvious makeup wearer is Paris who has thick mascaraed lashes and smoky eyes. She regards this make-up as being essential to who she is and feels that her eyes look ‘horrible’ when ‘I’ve got no makeup on’ (267-268).

While some of the group, like Paris, view make-up as part of their self-expression and part of their day-to-day physical identity, at the same time the students also criticise other women’s sense of identity in today’s society in terms of make-up. Mary says, ‘I turned on the telly and Single Date was on and there was this girl and she had the biggest eyebrows you’d ever seen in your entire life and I took a picture, I’m going to show you now [gets out her mobile]. Like slugs on her face.’ Felicity responds, ‘You know the Liverpool, Essex or whatever, they have proper weird eyebrows’ (220-223).

When Felicity commented ‘they think it looks good but it’s not it looks really ugly,’ I asked the group, ‘Why would they think it looks good?’ Heidi said, ‘Usually you’d tend to get people, I mean I’m not trying to sound harsh or anything but, people who end up being like that do get attention from the lads and think they’re beautiful and then they keep on doing it all the time’ (238-240). Showing that in terms of social identity appearances do matter even if on a deeper level ‘whatever’s on the outside you don’t usually see on the inside’ (Heidi, 256). This group don’t seem to feel pressure to conform to the limited media images of female beauty at this stage though understand in terms of attractiveness that they will be judged by external appearances, by young men for example. And when referring to such things they are citing TV programmes like The Only Way is Essex and Single Date with a critical eye. In this way storytelling appears to be triggering conversations about what it is currently like to be a young person for these individuals.

Important themes in terms of social identity for Group one in the all-girls school were crime and appearances. Young people were aware of conformist and nonconformist elements, discussing them in the group before the focus group question was raised.

This month I am also writing a paper for The Warwick Research Exchange Journal about how the storytelling space in combination with social interaction triggers sharing conversations. I also have a meeting to discuss some of these ideas with Jack Zipes in Cambridge.

References

MACINTYRE, M. 2012. MacCodram and His Seal Wife. Video Bank. Education Scotland. http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/video/m/video_tcm4572221.asp

PARFITT, E. 2013a. All-girls School Transcript 1, 19 April 2013

PARFITT, E. 2013b. All-girls School Transcript 2, 26 April 2013

PARFITT, E. 2013c. Final Interviews, 22 May 2013

L’article est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

The Inner Library

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:01:00 +0000

What is an inner library?

‘We carry with us every story we have ever heard and every story we have ever lived, filed away at some deep place in our memory. We carry most of those stories unread, as it were, until we have grown the capacity or the readiness to read them. When that happens they may come back to us filled with unexpected meaning.’

(Rachel Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, xli)

Remen’s words touch on the idea of an ‘inner library’ which is expressed in Arthur W. Frank’s book, Letting Stories Breathe a Socio-narratology. They articulate a similar notion, that we may carry the kernel of a story with us for a long time. Until something triggers its memory and in doing so uncovers new meaning. When the right conditions prevent themselves old ideas we have carried with us but never really understood, acknowledged, or accepted, take root. Blossoming into a new series of neural networks that can forever altar the idea of who we are. Story and the human brain have grown together over a long time. In our lifetime we are always transforming in some way. And if we accept and flow with this process of change life has the potential to be all the richer.

Cultural history of the inner library

The idea of an inner library has a long cultural history. Thought the first time I came across an idea like this it was in a contemporary novel. It was in one of Stephen King’s novels, I think Dreamcatcher, please correct me if I’m wrong, where the main character remembered things by keeping them on shelves like a stationary cupboard in his brain. He could hide thoughts there too. Or that is how I recalled the idea in my mind’s eye when Frank mentioned the concept of an ‘inner library.’

Death, Memory, and Material Culture by Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey discusses the history of the concept of an inner library. Basically, in medieval times the mind was seen as a series of rooms, this became a library. Later as technology influenced the concept further, our minds were visualised as organising information like computers.

I find it fascinating how this concept has changed with surrounding cultural influences and technology. It’s a shame that our brains aren’t much like computers … Well sometimes they are: except the binary code of the brain is narrative.

The inner library and storytelling

I am largely comparing the storyteller’s use of language and the resulting emotions expressed in group discussion. Yet the concept of inner libraries is important in the storylistening process if it has a impact on emotional response. I find that the concept of an inner library is relevant to my research on storytelling. Because it has an influence on the emotions that will be triggered as individuals listen to folktales.

Learn more about Emma’s writing

If you are looking for a book to read about sisterhood and the resilience of friendship check this out:

L’article The Inner Library est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.

Review of Letting Stories Breathe a Socio-narratology by Arthur W. Frank.

Emma Parfitt — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:27:00 +0000

Socio-narratology: what is it?

‘People’s access to narrative resources depends on their social location: what stories are told where they live and work, which stories do they take seriously or not, and especially what stories they exchange’ (Frank, 3).

I had been looking at socio-psychology as a form of analysis when Jack Zipes suggested a book that he had just reviewed himself. ‘This is a splendid book, and anyone who takes storytelling seriously should find the time to explore’ (Jack Zipes, Living Through Stories, Review by email, April 2012). I had already heard a few people mention Arthur W. Frank’s book The Wounded Storyteller, but this one seemed more relevant for my research.

I didn’t know anything about dialogical narrative analysis prior to reading this book. Like socio-narratology, dialogical analysis includes what a story does, how it connects and disconnects people, and that there are numerous possibilities when it comes to interpretation. Socio-narratology is practiced via dialogical analysis, learning from storytellers how to use stories appropriately and in what setting. There is no set way of doing this. I rather like that it is so fluid: unless I’m completely missing the point. Overall it is very confusing; at the same time it makes perfect sense. Frank’s writing style is representative of the quality of his experience in the field. I like the questions he raises and how he phrases his discussion in a creative way.

Huh?!

The main concept that I understood from Letting Stories Breathe is that this form of analysis encourages working with those you are studying, forming a relationship, opening a dialogue, and learning from this dialogue as a researcher. Dialogical analysis accepts that we cannot know all the inner workings of another person, as people are constantly changing. But we can acknowledge our own weaknesses and predispositions—as a result of our own social conditioning—as a part of the interpretation process.

Frank talks about what stories do, how they work, and provides some possible perspectives, when considering methods of analysis. He considers, in chapter six, that dialogical analysis ‘begins with how stories give people a sense of who they are’ (Frank, 159). From this we can progress into the way in which connections are formed in people’s ‘inner library’ of stories. The way in which this creates bonds between groups and communities; bringing us back to what narratives do and how they do it.

Emotions and stories

Although I am looking at the emotional benefits that fictional stories provide, Letting Stories Breathe is relevant to my work with storytelling because it stresses the importance of ‘story and storyteller working together’ (Frank, 107). Dialogical analysis attempts to unravel how stories affect individuals and become woven into a sense of cultural identity; between friends, acquaintances, businesses, and the community.

Do you agree with what I am saying? Please support my work, make a donation via the Paypal button at the top of this blog. Thank you.

Learn more about Emma’s writing

If you are looking for a book to read about sisterhood and the resilience of friendship check this out:

Perhaps you would also like the Seven Sisters series?

L’article Review of Letting Stories Breathe a Socio-narratology by Arthur W. Frank. est apparu en premier sur Emma Parfitt Proofreading Editing Services.