DISCOURSES:
CONVERSATIONS,
NARRATIVES AND
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES AS TEXTS
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION & KEITH MORRISON
STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
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What is a discourse?
A conversational analysis
A narrative discourse
Autobiography
WHAT IS A DISCOURSE?
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The meanings that are given to texts which
create and shape knowledge and behaviour
by the exercise of power through texts and
conversations.
A discourse is a way of thinking, culturally or
institutionally conditioned, which is legitimated
by communities, often those with power.
Discourses shape, and are shaped by,
different meanings. People are members of
different discourse communities – those
communities which hold similar values, views,
ideas and ways of looking at the world.
WHAT IS A DISCOURSE?
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Discourse is the ‘tactical dimension’ of the
operation of power in individuals, groups and
organizations.
A text can be the bearer of several discourses.
Discourse analysis reveals how power
operates and is legitimated or challenged in
and through discourses.
Discourse analysis has to take account of the
social contexts in which the texts are set.
Discourses are often emic.
WHAT IS A DISCOURSE?
To be a discourse a text must have:
• Cohesion
• Coherence
• Intentionality
• Acceptability
• Informativeness
• Situationality
• Intertextuality
FOUR METHODS OF DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS
• Analyzing words in context
• Analyzing interactions conducted through
language
• Analyzing patterns of language use
• Analyzing the links between language and the
constitution, structure and nature of society
CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS
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It is a rigorous investigation of features of a
conversation, how it is generated and
constructed, how it operates, what are its
distinguishing features, and how participants
construct their own meanings in the
conversational situation.
Conversations are multi-layered/multi-levelled.
It examines different levels of meaning within
a text.
CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS
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Looks at the contents, sequence, evolution
and forms of the conversation.
The more interpretive one becomes in the
analysis, the more risk there is of researcher
projection.
Conversation analysis may include non-verbal
and verbal aspects.
A NARRATIVE DISCOURSE . . .
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Reports personal experiences or observations
and brings fresh insights to often familiar
situations.
Tells a story.
Uses rich detail and carefully chosen words –
for effect/power/vividness.
Is strongly interpretivist, with meanings
constructed through observations and
language.
Makes it difficult to separate facts from
observations
A NARRATIVE DISCOURSE . . .
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Uses data selectively and reports them in nonneutral terms.
Can let the researcher report a situation vividly
from the perspective of the participants – their
‘definition of the situation’.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• We regard ‘lived time’ as a narrative, a story that
has meaning for us and which shapes our lives
‘we become the autobiographical narratives by
which we ‘tell about’ our lives’ (Bruner, 2004); our
own stories direct our future lives.
• Stories instruct, reveal and inform.
• An autobiography is ‘a privileged but troubled
narrative because it is both subjective and
objective, reflective and reflexive, and in which the
narrator is also the central figure’ (Bruner, 2004).
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• An autobiographical narrative is multilayered
and selective, and can be deconstructed at
many levels, e.g.: personal, cultural,
interpersonal ideological, linguistic.
• An autobiography contains facts, themes,
actors, a sequence, agency, coherence,
situatedness, and a sense of audience.
• The narrative may employ a chronological
sequence which is interrupted to break off into
reflection or comment.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• What is excluded is as important as what is
included.
• Texts may be read and interpreted in many
ways.