Volume 14, Number 1, 2025

EN:

This paper examines the lived experiences of seven young women with mild-to-moderate depression on dance-based participatory research from the perspective of narrative futuring (NF). The data consists of letters on desired future and reflective letters. The letters were analyzed with inductive thematic content analysis and later abductively interpreted with the concepts of inner and lived narratives drawn from the model of narrative circulation. The findings were condensed into four themes: 1) Love, self-respect, and self-actualization; 2) The tripod of peace of mind; 3) Peer support at significant turning points; and 4) The future. Overall, the method of danced NF facilitated a bodily connection, allowing the individual to discover personal meaning-making on depression, to envisage the possible desired future and to take steps towards it. Therefore, the corporeally and socially affirmed inner narratives contributed to the lived narratives. In conclusion, the findings suggest that embodied inner narratives derived from the desired future may contribute to lived narratives and improve mood in the short term. Although the findings must be considered preliminary, they may have practical implications for the prevention and alleviation of depression and possibly offer a multimodal and youth-friendly approach in health-care services.

EN:

Forgiveness is a multilayered process. However, there is little research on how individuals construct their narrative identity through self-positioning at turning points in the forgiveness process. The present study investigated these questions by interviewing 22 Finnish adults, applying McAdams’s life story interview method. Data-driven thematic narrative analysis demonstrated six turning points for the positioning self: (1) prologue: reflecting on the self from a distance, (2) the self gets help from others, (3) battling with the self, (4) the enlightened self, (5) the self initiates confrontation and (6) epilogue: the stronger future self. For the participants, these turning points were complex and profound experiences. Narrative turning points of forgiveness represented the many shades and phases of the forgiveness process that shaped participants’ positions and lives. The process was not linear and included stalled phases. Self-positioning moved from transgression to forgiveness, and in this process, the self’s agency varied from external to active. Participants described turning points in narratives of learning and empowerment with a strong protagonist who wants to move on in life. Turning points of forgiveness and self-positions may take different narrative forms in the future as individuals continue to narrate their forgiveness.

EN:

Narratological studies dealing with the story itself, the fabula, have become increasingly scarce in recent years. By revisiting classic narratological models, we identify the concept of narrative act, an "action upon an action", as a fundamental element of narrative transformation. We then draw up a systematic inventory of them, in the form of a broad typology organized into a set of interlocking models, each of which enriches the description of the fabula actions. In this modeling work, we emphasize the narrative nature of acts, in the sense that they are not simply speech acts or types of actions by an agent in social interaction. Notably, these narrative acts have their own narrative characteristics: dilation on the one hand, and the mise en abyme of the discourse on the other hand. More than 600 narrative acts have been found and grouped under twenty models. In order to provide a tangible access to this large set, a web-based interactive visualization has been implemented, offering a simple way to browse through the hundreds of narrative acts.

EN:

Shared reading is a relatively new type of reading intervention which aims to improve the wellbeing of participants by reading literary texts, mostly in non-educational settings. In order to find out whether shared reading can live up to its aims, we present and synthesize the existing scholarship on the effects of shared reading. To this end we have selected all the available studies up till 2024. The rapidly developing research into shared reading, which uses various theoretical perspectives and methodologies across disciplines, points towards impacts that we discuss as three interrelated aspects: emotional engagement, acquaintance with new perspectives, and the establishment of social connections and collaborative practices. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the various research methods used in scholarship on shared reading, and point to the potential of shared reading in the context of education.

EN:

Letters written, upon the researchers’ request, by older persons to a younger generation were subject to qualitative analysis. The complete analysis covered ten letters created by Polish and ten letters written by Czech respondents aged 62-90.

A structure of concept was generated, explaining the phenomenon of the family as a value in many aspects, i.e., the value of family as an intimate and loving community, the value of family as a source of meaning in life, the value of family as a space to experience faith in God, family as lost or unrealized value. The relations focus on the fundamental concept: being with others, for others, motivated by searching for meaning in one’s life. Polish and Czech respondents present a diverse yet internally consistent landscape of values that constitute the importance of family in life. A common characteristic of their letters is that while showing the value of family, they do not impose their biographical experiences on the young readers but rather speak as experienced, distanced, wise individuals who are aware that life passes away, but, at the same time, there are unchangeable, autotelic values to it.

EN:

In this methodology-focused article, we discuss the use of small stories and objects to include older adults with advanced symptoms of dementia in research about care. To illustrate these methods, we present data in the form of vignettes from interviews with three different dyads, each including an older adult with dementia and their family member. The dyad interviews were organised as a joint storytelling activity during which both participants had access to shared narrative resources, including objects as storytelling props, small stories drawn from a shared interactional history and the body as a semiotic resource. Each of the vignettes frames a conversational narrative about care in families living with dementia. In our analysis, we pay particular attention to contributions made by the participants with dementia and to the ways in which small stories and objects were used to enable their participation.

EN:

Here we explore the concept of counter-narratives through three contemporary vignettes: Masha Gessen’s controversial comparison of Gaza to Nazi ghettos, Henry Louis Gates’ experience of racial profiling, and Harrison Butker’s commencement speech challenging gender norms. Each story reveals tensions between dominant and counter-narratives, highlighting how competing constructions of reality shape public discourse and personal experience. Drawing on dialogical theory, the authors argue that counter-narratives critically disrupt master narratives, offering alternative perspectives and challenging entrenched power structures. Through personal scholarship and participatory research, the chapter demonstrates how counter-narratives emerge in activism, education, and marginalized communities, serving as tools for resistance and social change. The authors caution that while counter-narratives can provoke transformation, they often face silencing and backlash, emphasizing the need for critical vigilance and collective amplification in contentious times.

EN:

Resilience, the capacity to bounce back from adversity, is studied in gerontology principally within the (post-)positivist paradigm. Unlike the theory-based understanding that results, narrative resilience aims to capture older people’s resilience from “within.” As narrative gerontology more broadly, later-life narrative resilience is typically theorized and explored on the premises of “big story research,” relying on interview-elicited life stories. I propose introducing “small stories research” to this scholarship, thereby attending to underrecognized stories of resilience told in everyday interactions. Attending to resilience narratives-in-interaction can complement the dominant view of resilience as an individual’s characteristic reflected in their life story, recognizing that it is also a (narrative) process. To demonstrate this direction, I present a resilience small story, told by an 87-year-old survivor of the massacre carried out in his kibbutz on October 7, 2023, while guiding my husband and me, on his scooter, throughout the burnt kibbutz.

EN:

Musculoskeletal conditions are the leading contributors to disability worldwide. The underlying pathology is often unidentified, thereby making the communication between clinicians and patients challenging. Difficult to heal and cure, these conditions represent major challenges for patients and healthcare personnel, such as physiotherapists. The study aims to explore how individuals with long-term musculoskeletal ailments narrate and make meaning of their illness experiences while searching for healthcare. Two configured stories, illustrative of wide variations, tap into two persons struggles to find help. They are discussed in light of Ricoeur’s theory on embodied narrative identity and the significance of personal life stories and untold plots, which may have implications for the capacity to heal. The two stories unfold how seemingly similar conditions may be saturated with narrative plots of divergent meanings. The past is linked with the present challenges and capacities to heal, along with consequences for future prospects. Their musculoskeletal ailments emerged entwined with an embodied lived life and personal characters. Long-lasting musculoskeletal conditions are personal meaningful illness experiences entangled in peoples’ lives. We argue that narrative reasoning is pivotal to actor-centered clinical reasoning when shaping the treatment to each person’s prerequisites and dispositions.

EN:

This review article examines the Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory (2021) in the context of public discourse, collective memory, and epistemic cultures within post-truth environments. It explores the interaction between micro-level personal storytelling and macro-level media structures, particularly focusing on social media platforms like Instagram. By analyzing key insights from the Companion, the article highlights how individual narratives challenge traditional frameworks of knowledge production and influence broader cultural and media systems. The review investigates how personal stories, often overlooked or amplified by algorithms, contribute to the construction of collective meaning in a fragmented public sphere. It also addresses the impact of the post-truth phenomenon, where emotional engagement often supersedes factual accuracy, altering how truth is constructed and perceived. The article reviews methodologies for studying these narratives, such as hashtag research, topic modeling, and web scraping, offering insights into new ways of tracking and analyzing micro-level stories. These methods are crucial for understanding how personal stories shape collective memory, identity, and public discourse in digital spaces. In conclusion, the article emphasizes the importance of a nuanced approach to studying the intersection of personal storytelling, media structures, and post-truth narratives, based on the insights provided in the Routledge Companion.