Narrative Study: Whose Story Is It, Anyway?

M In the past three decades, narratives and, in particular, stories people tell about their lives have become the focus of the evolving interdisciplinary field of study (Bruner, 1990; Linde, 1993; Ochs, 1997; Rosenwald & Ochberg, 1992; Sarbin, 1986), which posited as the central means by which people give their lives meaning across time: We dream in narrative, daydream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, plan, revise, criticize, gossip, learn, hate and love by narrative (Hardy, 1968, p. 5). Consequently, narratives have gained increasing stature outside the fields of literature and folklore, becoming both a focus of research and a rich source of data in several areas of