Telling Stories: The Use of Personal Narratives in the Social Sciences and History

by Mary Jo Maynes, Jennifer L. Pierce, Barbara Laslett

In Telling Stories, Mary Jo Maynes, Jennifer L. Pierce, and Barbara Laslett argue that personal narratives--autobiographies, oral histories, life history interviews, and memoirs--are an important research tool for understanding the relationship between people and their societies. Gathering examples from throughout the world and from premodern as well as contemporary cultures, they draw from labor history and class analysis, feminist sociology, race relations, and anthropology to demonstrate the value of personal narratives for scholars and students alike.

Telling Stories explores why and how personal narratives should be used as evidence, and the methods and pitfalls of their use. The authors stress the importance of recognizing that stories that people tell about their lives are never simply individual. Rather, they are told in historically specific times and settings and call on rules, models, and social experiences that govern how story elements link together in the process of self-narration. Stories show how individuals' motivations, emotions, and imaginations have been shaped by their cumulative life experiences. In turn, Telling Stories demonstrates how the knowledge produced by personal narrative analysis is not simply contained in the stories told; the understanding that takes place between narrator and analyst and between analyst and audience enriches the results immeasurably.

Genres: Nonfiction, Grad School

200 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important for considering how the use of personal narratives allows the researcher a deeper understanding of human agency and subjectivity.

[Janet Holt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75
Read for WSGS 201

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Telling Stories" was also a book I was assigned for class. The authors, two historians and a sociologist, explore the value of using personal narratives as a tool in social science research. Unlike the Dan McAdams text, "The Stories We Live By," the authors of "Telling Stories" delve deeply into the potential pitfalls of relying on personal narratives - whether in the form of spoken interviews or written text, such as autobiographies, journals, and correspondence. Further, the authors get into some of the issues regarding the potential subjectivity of the interviewer - certainly important to keep in mind before I, and others, conduct our own life course interviews (a project for the class, which I am looking forward to).

This was not covered in the book, but something that came up in our class discussion was how to (if at all) to use social media (Facebook, Twitter, and the like) as "genres" of personal narratives in life course research. Especially pertinent to the idea of studying the life course (the topic of the class) is what to make of the new timeline feature on Facebook - a very new and different way of constructing one's personal narrative. I wouldn't be surprised if, not too far into the future, social science research, particularly life course research, will rely quite heavily on Facebook, email, blogs, and yes, even Goodreads accounts as data sources.

As I believe I stated in my review of McAdams's "The Stories We Live By," I quite enjoy learning about the role of narratives in social science research - a perfect combination of two academic interests of mine (literature and sociology).