A Conceptual Tool Kit

The chapter begins with a section on methods and forms of evidence that outlines the difference between top-down and bottom-up analyses of national memory and notes that the latter will be given more emphasis in this book than is the case in many studies of national identity and memory. The section also argues that by understanding how narrative tools can “co-author” individuals’ speaking and thinking, it is possible to avoid misguided notions of “primordialism” that are part of the rhetorical claims of nationalists. The next section examines the sense in which national memory is memory and argues for the need to focus on remembering individuals as members of groups. This involves a review of ideas from figures such as Maurice Halbwachs and Frederic Bartlett on collective and individual memory. This is followed by a section on “Flashbulb Memories as Memory in the Group,” which uses a body of literature in psychology to develop a conceptually grounded notion of national memory that includes the observation that Bartlett’s notion of schema underpins much of the entire discussion. The next section, on “symbolic mediation,” reviews the origins of this idea in the writings of several European and Russian scholars and goes into the case of literacy as an illustration as outlined in empirical studies by Luria and Vygotsky. It then poses an analogous line of reasoning for narratives as symbolic mediation. This includes a discussion of the “inner logic” of narrative tools, “narrative truth,” and two levels of narrative analysis (“specific narratives” and “narrative templates”).

The narrative truth about scientific misinformation

Science and storytelling mean different things when they speak of truth. This difference leads some to blame storytelling for presenting a distorted view of science and contributing to misinformation. Yet others celebrate storytelling as a way to engage audiences and share accurate scientific information. This review disentangles the complexities of how storytelling intersects with scientific misinformation. Storytelling is the act of sharing a narrative, and science and narrative represent two distinct ways of constructing reality. Where science searches for broad patterns that capture general truths about the world, narratives search for connections through human experience that assign meaning and value to reality. I explore how these contrasting conceptions of truth manifest across different contexts to either promote or counter scientific misinformation. I also identify gaps in the literature and identify promising future areas of research. Even with their differences, the underlying purpose of both science and narrative seeks to make sense of the world and find our place within it. While narrative can indeed lead to scientific misinformation, narrative can also help science counter misinformation by providing meaning to reality that incorporates accurate science knowledge into human experience.

Post-postmodern consumer authenticity, shantay you stay or sashay away? A netnography of RuPaul’s Drag Race fans

Consumer negotiation of authenticity is explored through a netnography of online fans of the reality television series RuPaul’s Drag Race. Suggestion is of a post-postmodern approach to negotiating the authenticity of series narratives consumed, associated authentic identities of consumers, and of supporting interactions of the consumer community. A more reconstructive stance arises from some fans’ occasional frustrations over staging interfering with narrative truth and at times perceived dismissal of meaningful fixed identity. Public performances before and with other online fans help to agglomerate and assert preferred versions of these. This post-postmodern approach is distinct from more deconstructive and typically postmodern attitudes also evident among the fandom, and themselves shown to interact with and be reinvigorated by reconstructions. Highlighted is the complex negotiation of authenticity by consumers overall.

1. Truth and Narrative

Janet Dyson explores forms of, and the importance of, narrative truth embodied in acts of storytelling. Calling on philosophers, published authors and her own research and teaching experience, she shows how fictional accounts can divulge deeper (if less universal) truths in ways that engage the imagination of the reader, becoming memorable. When training student teachers, Janet encourages them to adopt creative approaches as they reflect on their school experiences and, here, demonstrates how such a story can capture both an event and the emotions it engenders.

Designing and Making

The office bears the trace of other times and places. As I experienced it in 2014, the room contained ten architects, then involved in the construction of four buildings, with numerous other design projects at various stages of completion. When I visited two years previously, there were still only six architects, working in an office in the house of Tomas’s codirector, Tom, in an extension he had himself designed. The practice had moved there a couple of years before, having outgrown an adapted garden shed at the end of Tomas’s rented cottage. Freezing in winter and too hot in summer, the shed was where they first set up office and where they subsequently took on their first employee. These details are themselves part of a story I hear recounted on a number of occasions. They are factually correct but convey a narrative truth beyond this: of sacrifice, and of rapid change from humble beginnings that is a source collective pride. Alongside this are ambivalences, anxieties that the progress won through hard work has nonetheless been accompanied by changes about which they are more ambivalent....

Should Transitional Justice Promote Forgiveness?

Over the past thirty years, transitional justice scholars have grappled with whether, and to what extent, post-conflict societies should foster forgiveness. In response to this question, this article argues that forgiveness is a legitimate goal of transitional justice, but that interpersonal forgiveness cannot be mandated by the government. It will look to the example of Guatemala to demonstrate how the recovery of narrative truth through individual and communal acts of remembrance enabled forgiveness while at the same time affirmed the need for justice. The article proceeds in two parts. First, it explores the praxis of forgiveness and the role of narrative truth and the healing of memory as constitutive elements of forgiveness. Second, it argues that Guatemala’s Recovery of Historical Memory Project (REMHI) is an illustration of this praxis. Finally, this article argues against conceptions of forgiveness that promote forgetting the past and forgoing justice.