Narrative’s Virtues

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7425831
AutoresA P Bochner (0000-0003-1284-9186, University of South Florida, autor correspondente)
Ano2001
Volume7
Fascículo2
Páginas131-157
Data de publicação2001-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoQualitative Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1077-8004 • E-ISSN: 1552-7565
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/107780040100700201
OpenAlexW2150596609
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas143
Referências citadas30

Reacting to the charge that personal narratives, especially illness narratives, constitute a “blind alley” that misconstrues the essential nature of narrative by substituting a therapeutic for a sociological view of the person, this article speaks back to critics who regard narratives of suffering as privileged, romantic, and/or hyperauthentic. The author argues that this critique of personal narrative rests on an idealized and discredited theory of inquiry, a monolithic conception of ethnographic inquiry, a distinctly masculine characterization of sociology, and a veiled resistance to the moral, political, existential, and therapeutic goals of this work. Layering his responses to the critique with brief personal stories regarding the suppressed emotionality that motivates academics to oppose innovations, the author examines his own motives as well as those of the critics, concluding that multiplicity is easier to pronounce than to live and urging a commitment to a social science that can accommodate diverse desires

Romance · Empathy and Medical Education · Management and Organizational Studies · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics