Premium
Mediation and Genre
Author(s) -
Hardy Samantha
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
negotiation journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.238
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1571-9979
pISSN - 0748-4526
DOI - 10.1111/j.1571-9979.2008.00183.x
Subject(s) - mediation , narrative , constructive , conflict resolution , sociology , tragedy (event) , social psychology , epistemology , political science , linguistics , psychology , process (computing) , computer science , philosophy , social science , operating system
This paper examines the constitutive elements of the genre of melodrama and relates them to typical Western conflict stories. It demonstrates why a conflict narrative based on the genre of melodrama tends to work against the resolution of the conflict and proposes tragedy as a more constructive genre for a conflict narrative. The paper also discusses how the mediation situation itself can constrain the possible genres that can be constructed in the process and explores the implications of those constraints for people in conflict and for the mediators facilitating a resolution.