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Pursuing Truth in Narrative Research
Author(s) -
O'DEA JANE W.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9752.1994.tb00323.x
Subject(s) - narrative , epistemology , sociology , psychology , philosophy , linguistics
In substituting aesthetic criteria for the time‐honoured yardsticks of reliability, validity and generalization, narrative researchers are sometimes criticized for devaluing the notion of truth. This paper suggests that what is an issue here is not so much empirical quantitative truth as rather artistic literary truth. The latter notion of truth is characterized in terms of ‘authenticity’ and the ramifications of authentic truth for narrative research are posited and explored. Only such an understanding of truth and the resolve seriously to apply it will garner narrative researchers the epistemic respectability they seek.