Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 199-224

Narrative Analysis in Sociological Research: Main Approaches and a Unifying Frame

Martin Hájek, Martin Havlík, Jiří Nekvapil
1 Fakulta sociálních věd UK, Praha
2 Ústav pro jazyk český AV ČR, Praha a Fakulta sociálních věd UK, Praha 3 Filozofická fakulta UK, Praha

Against the backdrop of the current popularity of the concept of narrative in the social sciences the authors analyse the uses of narrative analysis in empirical social research and provide a unifying frame based on Paul Ricoeur's notion of narrative mimesis. To begin they situate 'narrative' in the context of the social research tradition. Using both a simple and an elaborated definition of narrative they outline the main approaches to narrative analysis relevant to sociology and categorize them as structuralist, hermeneutic, or interactionist. The crux of the article is a discussion of Ricoeur's integrative model of narrative as threefold mimesis and its proposed methodological application in sociological narrative research. The authors argue that Ricoeur's model obviates undesirable analytical simplifications and encourages research that captures all the substantial aspects of narrative, including the producer (the narrator) and the recipient (the listener or reader).

Keywords: narrative analysis, qualitative methodology, Ricoeur, mimesis, structuralism, hermeneutics, interactionism

Published: April 1, 2012Show citation

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Hájek, M., Havlík, M., & Nekvapil, J. (2012). Narrative Analysis in Sociological Research: Main Approaches and a Unifying Frame. Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 48(2), 199-224.
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