240031 VO The Social Life of Stories: Narrative Theories and Methods (3.3.6) (2018S)

Narratives are fundamental to social life. By telling stories we do not only make meaning of our experiences but by sharing them with others we are forming relations and establishing socialities. Thus storytelling expressed by different media is located at the intersection between private and public life.
In this lecture series we will investigate narratives and their importance in anthropological work, past and present. People in different places, situations and contexts use narratives as a way to express themselves and to engage with others. This does not mean that a universal way of storytelling exists but anthropologists have been particularly interested in exploring the cultural and social contexts of narratives encountered during fieldwork. However, anthropologists do not only encounter narratives but also elicit, study and (co-)create narratives, whether through ethnographic observation, by conducting interviews or through their analysis and writing of ethnographic accounts.

The lecture consists of an input lecture on the above-listed core topics (supported by ethnographic and descriptive examples) and the discussion of the compulsory reading of key texts. The lecture is supported by multimedia teaching material and will make use of the e-learning platform Moodle. Exams modalities and compulsory literature will be announced in due time and will be uploaded on Moodle.