Narrative analysis in ethnography

Avatar for BethanPhD

I am currently in the second year of a PhD using ethnographic methods to explore the lived experience of participating in a support service for sex workers.

I am at the stage of wanting to read more around types of analysis and would be really grateful if people could suggest any studies in which people have analysed ethnographic data (observations and interviews would be best) using a narrative approach.

Thank you!
Bethan

T

Have you tried putting narrative ethnography as search term in google scholar??

Z

Catherine Riessman wrote a great book titled 'Narrative analysis' (I think the year of publication is 2008?) If you search for Riessman you will certainly find it. I am using Narrative Inquiry and this was a very useful book in understanding different approaches to analysing narrative. Regarding analysing an ethnography through narrative, there is an approach to analysis called 'Narrative ethnography' which may be fitting so I would recommend doing some searches with this term too :)

Avatar for BethanPhD

Thank you both for your help :)

N

There are loads of suitable texts on analysing narratives from an ethnography. As well as the afore-mentioned Reissman book, Gubrium and Holstein's (2008) Analysing Narrative Reality is a good introduction. There is also the Handbook of Narrative Research edited by Jean Clandinin. The most useful for me in terms of putting things into context when analysing narratives from an ethnography was a book by Harry Wolcott called Transforming Qualitative Data. He breaks the data down into Description, Analysis and Interpretation. The work of Andrew C Sparkes, Brett Smith and Arthur Frank are all worth looking at depending upon your area of interest. Finally as a means of considering your own reflexive position within the ethnography, The Ethnographic Self (1999) by Amanda Coffey is fantastic.

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