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The difficulty is that, for me to feel I could say anything, I would need to
have the transcript to make a judgement about the alternative
interpretations. Both some awkwardness about pushing for PINs and some
reluctance about giving certain sorts of details under certain sorts of
contexts.. All might be at play at different points to (very) different
degrees. A general universal answer without being located to particular
interviewing contexts would be very un-grounded theory...! We need the data
about which to make (different) grounded judgements.. Different cultural
cues, different demarcations of public/private matters... And the logical
category of "Non-Westerners" may cover a very diverse set of realities
indeed!
Thanks very much Rosalyn for raising the issue. If any cross-cultural
comparative narratologists or others have material, references or insights
to offer (ideally, all three), then that might shed light on lots of
things, including 'Western narrative'.
Best wishes
Tom
P.S. free-associative musings suggest Levi-Strauss on some American Indian
discourse that he (L-S) described as 'n arrative of a different sort' (but I
think it was a leg-pull); Dorothy Lee in her lovely book freedom and culture
on the dominance of the 'the line' as a category immanent in (not-all)
world thinking - I think she said that the Trobriand Islanders around the
time of Malinowski's stay during World War One engaged in a non-lineal
codification of reality. But I'm sure there must be (somewhere) more recent
discussions of all this.
_____
From: Rosalyn Davidson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 March 2009 14:21
To: 'tom wengraf'
Subject: RE: BNIM - do non-westerners have different concepts of
'narrative'? How might one proceed do 'adapt BNIM' appropriately?
Dear Tom
I will do. However at the moment I can explain what I see the problem being.
When I push for PINS, there is only a level to which I can push when I get
the same answer repeated, more like a GIN. I am wondering if indeed this is
a PIN but not as the Western BNIM experience would describe it? I am
wondering if there are cultural cues which I am missing or misinterpreting
or if it just a case of the interviewee not wanting to discuss essentially
private matters in what is ostensibly a 'professional' interview. I would
appreciate any input.
Rosalyn
Rosalyn Davidson
School of Languages, Literatures
and Performing Arts
Queen's University Belfast
BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland
Direct Tel: +44 (0) 28 9097 3855
School Office: +44 (0) 28 9097 5363
Fax: +44 (0) 28 9032 4549
_____
From: Discussion list for those practising BNIM
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of tom wengraf
Sent: 12 March 2009 14:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: BNIM - do non-westerners have different concepts of
'narrative'? How might one proceed do 'adapt BNIM' appropriately?
Hi!
Rosalyn Davidson has just sent me the letter below which I'm sure other
people may well be much better placed to respond to than I am. I did want to
start a discussion on this in the 'Short Guide and Detailed Manual' Appendix
A4 (4 pages), and maybe people could help out.
I would love to see (extracts from) transcripts in which the material
suggests the possibility of a different concept of narrative. If you could
provide, Rosalyn, [and anybody else with relevant material] some data for us
to 'see your problem your problem arising', that would be fantastically
useful.
Best wishes to all
Tom
P.S. Click on <www.kiafrica.org>. for our 'voluntourism + study trip
project' in rural Uganda. ... We've just revised the Kanaama Interactive
web-site, the pictures, and the things you can choose to do..... Read the
very positive reports from our first year of visitors!....Did you know that
maths teaching in Ugandan schools is more advanced than in English ones?
.....
P.P.S. For a free electronic copy of the most recent version of the BNIM
(the biographic-narrative interpretive method of research interviewing for
lived experience) Short Guide and Detailed Manual , just click on
<[log in to unmask]> . Please indicate your institutional affiliation and
the purpose for which you might envisage using BNIM's open-narrative
interviews, and I'll send it straight away.
_____
From: Rosalyn Davidson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 March 2009 10:13
To: 'tom wengraf'
Subject: BNIM
Tom
I trust you are well and very busy.
I am writing to see do you know of anybody who has written on or who is
discussing the idea of narratives in non-western cultures. I am interested
in any background information, like books, authors etc, that you might have
come across in which the idea of a difference in the narrative response
takes a different course to that usually associated with western cultures,
i.e. do people from different cultures formulate their narratives in an
entirely different way to those in western cultures? I should be very
grateful if you would signpost me to anybody that you know as I have now
carried out three interviews with people from Hong Kong and have been struck
each time how I, as interviewer, have felt that they have not responded in a
way equivalent to interviews with people from western cultures. I am unsure
at present if this is to do with my technique, which of course I am not
ruling out, or if it is I who am missing cues because of the difference in
culture. Are they actually giving me PINs of which I am missing the
relevance, or do they just not story their lives in the same rambling way
that we do??
Thank you and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Rosalyn
Rosalyn Davidson
School of Languages, Literatures
and Performing Arts
Queen's University Belfast
BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland
Direct Tel: +44 (0) 28 9097 3855
School Office: +44 (0) 28 9097 5363
Fax: +44 (0) 28 9032 4549
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