Narrative Paradigm

Steven Smith & Brittani Hunter

Main Idea: People are story telling creatures.

“We experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing

narratives, as conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles, and ends.”

• Fisher defines “Narration” as “symbolic actions—words and/or deeds—that have sequence & meaning for those who live, create, or interpret them”• Views narration as the basis of all

human communication.

“Paradigm” is defined as “a conceptual framework; a universal model that calls for people to view

events through common interpretive lens.”

Rational Paradigm

• Assumes that…– People are essentially rational.– We make decisions on the basis of arguments.– The type of speaking situation (legal, scientific,

legislative) determines the course of our argument.– Rationality is determined by how much we know

and how well we argue.– The world is a set of logical puzzles that we can

solve through rational analysis.

Rational Paradigm (cont’d)

• Suggests that logic is privileged over emotion.• Empiricism reigns. • Rise of technological experts.• Logos is reduced to “philosophical

discourse & statements.”

Narrative Paradigm Assumptions

• People are storytellers.• We make decisions based on good reasons, which

vary depending on the communication context & medium.

• History, biography, culture, and character determine what we consider good reasons.

• Narrative rationality is determined by the coherence and fidelity of our stories.

• The world is a set of stories from which we choose.

Narrative coherence: internal consistency in the story; the story hangs together.

Narrative fidelity: the compatibility between the values in a message and what listeners consider truthful and humane; “story strikes a responsive chord”.

Narrative rationality: A way to evaluate the worth of stories based on narrative coherence and narrative fidelity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rPFvLUWkzs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO8imsZl1F8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJQsBLAIE0

Critique of Fisher

Critics of the Narrative Paradigm claim that Fisher is overly optimistic in his view that people have a natural tendency to prefer

the true and just.