Open AccessA Situation, a Narrative, and a Life History. The Case of Natalia
Author(s) -
Gerhard Riemann
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
qualitative sociology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.315
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 1733-8077
DOI - 10.18778/1733-8077.10.1.02
Subject(s) - narrative , sensibility , sociology , focus (optics) , style (visual arts) , epistemology , order (exchange) , abstraction , aesthetics , psychology , psychoanalysis , linguistics , literature , philosophy , art , physics , finance , optics , economics
I will first focus on problems which might emerge in narrative interviews with people who have experienced long-term trajectories of suffering, before discussing the researcher’s specific style of doing this particular biographical interview – a style which is marked by sensibility and considerateness, but might contain some problems nevertheless. Afterwards, I will deal with two formal features of the interviewee’s introductory narrative – a complicated background construction and an extended pre-coda commentary – in order to reveal the analytical significance of these features for a deeper understanding of the interviewee’s life history and her way of making sense of her experiences. The article ends with a discussion of some topics which are relevant for an analytical abstraction.