Postgraduate Course: Narrative Text and Discourse (PGSP11121)
Course Outline
| School |
School of Social and Political Science |
College |
College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits |
20 |
| Home subject area |
Postgrad (School of Social and Political Studies) |
Other subject area |
None |
| Course website |
None
|
Taught in Gaelic? |
No |
| Course description |
Narrative approaches to social research are part of a burgeoning field of social inquiry, placing at their forefront a critical investigation of the stories people tell about their own and others&© lives and experiences. Stories are occasioned in various data $ú from raw interview transcripts to photographs, from $ùdocuments of life&© to policy documents, and more. Narrative, Text and Discourse introduces students to key ideas, theories and methodological considerations regarding a range of approaches to narrative inquiry and analysis on a wide variety of data. Specifically, the course provides both an overview and $ùhands on&© practical experience (both in the classroom and in the assessment) of approaches to narrative inquiry used in contemporary $ùreal world&© research, with course lecturers drawing on their own methodological and substantive interests and research practices during the sessions.
Narrative, Text and Discourse is not an undergraduate-type $ùtaught-course&© but a postgraduate-level participatory seminar and workshop, in which different kinds of narrative analysis will be discussed and used, including by class members, to analyse some different research materials. The course brings together graduate students and staff from a range of backgrounds in order to encourage reflection on shared theoretical, practical and intellectual questions regarding approaches to narrative inquiry. As such, it provides a forum for intellectual networking opportunities in a graduate school ethos.
Overall, the course aims to deliver an understanding of, and experience in deploying, a variety of approaches to narrative inquiry and analysis, which students can use to inform their postgraduate level studies.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites |
|
| Prohibited Combinations |
|
Other requirements |
None
|
| Additional Costs |
None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
|
WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: 27 |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| Additional information |
Narrative, Text and Discourse is not an undergraduate-type $ùtaught course&©, but a postgraduate-level participatory seminar and workshop, in which different varieties of narrative analysis will be used, including by class members, to analyse some different research materials.
The course brings together graduate students and staff from a range of backgrounds in order to encourage reflection on shared theoretical, practical and intellectual questions regarding approaches to narrative inquiry. As such, it provides a forum for intellectual networking opportunities in a graduate school ethos.
|
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
&· A broad understanding of the complex field of $ùnarrative research&© and an awareness of key ideas and concerns in the field.
&· Demonstrate the critical deployment (orally in class and in writing in the assessment) a range of methodological approaches to narrative inquiry and analysis.
&· Identify, critique and synthesise the analytical, conceptual and methodological implications of the approaches to narrative analysis drawn upon in the course with reference to contemporary literature and evaluate benefits and drawbacks in light of $ùhands on&© practice at deploying the approaches.
&· Communicate and discuss the $ùworking-through&© of approaches to narrative analysis with peers and course lecturers, including ethical considerations.
&· Taking responsibility for undertaking obligatory and wider reading.
|
Assessment Information
| Assessment is by a single course paper (length 3500-4000 word) and involves implementing and comparing two or more approaches to narrative analysis in relation to a particular substantive topic or particular text of interest to the student. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Indicative topics considered:
&· broad ideas regarding the concept of $ùnarrative&©, including the relationships and tensions between narrative as a set of analytical approaches on one hand, and narrative as structures and themes existing $ùin&© source materials of different kinds on the other;
&· approaches to analysing texts, specifically $ùdocuments of life&©, including consideration of their form, content, their contexts of production and consumption, as well as their complex temporal features and the impact that $ùre-reading&© can have on interpretation;
&· theoretical, ethical and practical challenges that face researchers conducting narrative analysis;
&· implications regarding transcription, considering the implications of transcribing as poetry rather than prose;
&· issues in doing and reading narrative analyses specifically regarding interview-based research, focusing on interview transcripts to consider implications of differing approaches to narrative analysis, such as $ùnested&© sets of texts and the voice-centred relational model;
&· the use of frame analysis in the social and political sciences approaches to, and methodological implications
&· approaches to, and methodological implications of, deploying narrative inquiry to look at large-scale complex social phenomena using qualitative material.
|
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Andrews, M et al (eds.) (2008) Doing Narrative Research, London: Sage.
Elliott, J (2005) Using Narrative in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, London: Sage.
Herman, D. (2009) Basic Elements of Narrative, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Riessman, C. K. (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, London: Sage
|
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords |
Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser |
Dr Andrea Salter
Tel:
Email: andrea.salter@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Mrs Gillian Macdonald
Tel: (0131 6)51 3244
Email: gillian.macdonald@ed.ac.uk |
|
copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh -
29 June 2011 7:51 am
|
University Homepage