TEXTBOOK: Ch. 20: The Narrative Paradigm:
*Fidelity*
*_______________* - a principle of narrative rationality judging the credibility of a story
*Coherence*
*_________________* - a principle of narrative rationality related to the internal consistency of a story
*Narration*
*_________________* - an account to which listeners assign meaning
*Good reasons*
*___________________* - a set of values for accepting a story as true and worthy of acceptance; provides a method for assessing fidelity
*Paradigm shift*
*___________________* - a significant change in the way most people see the world and its meanings
*Material coherence*
*_______________________* - a type of coherence referring to the congruence between one story and other related stories
*Structural coherence*
*_______________________* - a type of coherence referring to the flow of the story
*Narrative rationality*
*________________________* - a standard for judging which stories to believe and which to disregard
*Rational world paradigm*
*_________________________* - a system of logic employed by many researchers and professionals
*Characterological coherence*
*_________________________* - a type of coherence referring to the believability of the characters in the story
-Interpretive/Hermeneutic
Approach to Knowing:
storytellers good reasons history; biography; culture; character consistency; truthfulness stories; choose
Assumptions of the Narrative Paradigm: Despite Fisher's attempt to show the Narrative Paradigm as a fusion of logic and aesthetic, he does point out that narrative logic is different from traditional logic and reasoning. We will discuss how these 2 differ throughout the chapter because this is an important distinction for Fisher and one that he continually refined as his thinking about the Narrative Paradigm evolved. An important aspect of the assumptions of the Narrative Paradigm is that they contrast with those of the rational world paradigm, just as the 2 logics differ. Fisher (1987) stipulated 5 assumptions: 1. Humans are naturally ____________________. 2. Decisions about a story's worth are based on "__________________-." 3. Good reasons are determined by ________, __________, _________, and ____________________. 4. Rationality is based on people's judgments of a story's _____________ and ___________________. 5. We experience the world as filled with ___________, and we must __________ among them.
Walter Fisher
Based on the research of _________________
*Characterological coherence*
Characterological Coherence: *___________________________* refers to the believability of the characters in the story. For instance, you may have a professor whom you dislike a great deal. This professor ridicules you and other students in the class whenever anyone contributes to class discussions. In addition, the professor makes racist, homophobic, and sexist jokes in class. Your impression is that this professor is a thoroughly objectionable person. Given this background, you would be unlikely to accept a story in which this professor was shown in an admirable or even heroic light. You would reject the story for not possessing characterological coherence.
*Coherence* organizational; structural structural; material; characterological
Coherence: The principle of coherence is an important standard for assessing narrative rationality, which will ultimately determine whether or not a person accepts a particular narrative or rejects it. *_______________________* refers to the internal consistency of a narrative. When judging a story's coherence, the listener would ask whether the narrative seemed to hang together in a consistent manner. Narratives possess coherence when all the pieces of the story are present; we do not feel that the storyteller has left out important details or contradicted elements of the story in any way. Coherence is the standard of sensemaking applied to a given narrative. This sensemaking is usually obtained when the characters in a story behave in relatively consistent ways. When Miles read the narratives contained in Jorge's campaign literature, he saw a consistent thread running through them: His university has racial problems. If Jorge had presented some problems based on race and then shaped the narrative to conclude that all was well with race relations at the university, Miles would have rejected the story for being inconsistent. Coherence is often measured by the ________________ and _____________ elements of a narrative. When a storyteller skips around and leaves out important information, interrupts the flow of the story to add elements forgotten earlier, and generally is not smooth in structuring the narrative, the listener may reject the narrative for not possessing coherence. Coherence is based on 3 specific types of consistency: _______________ coherence, ______________ coherence, and __________________________ coherence.
-Public/Rhetorical
Communication Context:
-Rhetorical
Communication Tradition:
*fidelity*
Fidelity: The other critical standard for assessing narrative rationality is *____________*, or the truthfulness or reliability of the story. Stories with fidelity ring true to a listener. When Miles reads the stories that Jorge has in his campaign literature, he thinks to himself that those events have happened to him at the university. Miles wonders if Jorge has been following him around campus, watching what goes on in his life. This makes the stories powerful to Miles. They possess a great deal of fidelity for him. Fisher (1987) notes that when the elements of a story "represent accurate assertions about social reality", they have fidelity.
stories; differently
Finally, Fisher's perspective is based on the assumption that the world is a set of __________, and as we choose among them, we experience life _________________, allowing us to recreate our lives. Miles's choice to support Jorge may cause him to cast his own life story differently. He may no longer see himself as a loner. He may change his sense of political action based on his choice of Jorge's story. You can see how the Narrative Paradigm contrasts with the rational world paradigm, which tends to see the world as less transient and shifting and which discovers truth through rational analysis, not through narrative logic's emotional responses to compelling stories.
logos reason; mythos poetical inferior equal knowledge logos probabilistic
Fisher (1987) explains the paradigm shift by recounting a brief history of paradigms that have guided Western thinking. He notes that originally ________ meant a combination of concepts including story, rationale, discourse, and thought. Fisher explains that this meaning held until the time of Plato and Aristotle, who distinguished between logos as ________ and _________ as story and emotion. In this division, mythos, representing _____________ discourse, was assigned a negative status relative to logos, or reason. The concept of rhetoric fell somewhere between the elevated logic of logos and the ____________ status of poetics or mythos. Ranking mythos, logos, and rhetoric in this way reinforced the concept that not all discourse is _________. In fact, according to Aristotle, some discourse is superior to others by virtue of its relationship to true __________________. Only _________, Aristotle asserted, leads to true knowledge because it provides a system of logic that can be proven valid. Logos was found in the discourse of philosophy. Other forms of discourse lead to knowledge, but the knowledge they produce is ____________________, not true in an absolute, invariable sense.
logos; mythos
Fisher argues that the Narrative Paradigm accomplishes this shift through recognizing that "some discourse is more veracious, reliable, and trustworthy in respect to knowledge, truth, and reality than some other discourse, but no form or "genre" has final claim to these virtues". In asserting this, Fisher lays the groundwork for reclaiming the importance of the narrative, or story, without denigrating logic and reason, and he establishes a new way of conceptualizing rhetoric. Furthermore, Fisher asserts that story, or mythos, is imbued in all human communication endeavors (even those involving logic) because all arguments include "ideas that cannot be verified or proved in any absolute way. Such ideas arise in metaphor, values, gestures, and so on". Fisher thus attempts to bridge the divide between _______ (rational argument) and _________ (story or narrative).
heuristic
Heurism: Despite criticisms, which primarily urge refinements of the theory, not its abandonment, Fisher's Narrative Paradigm has contributed a great deal to the study of human communication. For one thing, the idea of people as storytellers has proved captivating and ___________. Storytelling seems an apt metaphor for understanding how humans use communication to make sense of the world. Fisher has provided a new paradigm for understanding human nature, squarely located in the symbolic realm of communication. Further, some research suggests that the concept of storytelling has application in computer games, many of the most popular of which are story driven. Future scholarship will extend the framework of the Narrative Paradigm to remediate its shortcomings and capitalize on its strengths. In constructing the Narrative Paradigm, Fisher has provided a rich framework for such scholarship to take place.
lived scope; logical consistency; utility; heurism
Integration, Critique, and Closing: Fisher's Narrative Paradigm offers new insights into communication behavior and directs our attention to democratic processes in the area of rhetorical criticism. Fisher contributes the idea that people's _______ experiences make them capable of analyzing rhetoric. Furthermore, the Narrative Paradigm helps us to see the nature of multiple logics at work in our communication encounters. Thus, the Narrative Paradigm has made a substantial contribution to our understanding of human communication and human nature in general. As you think about the Narrative Paradigm, consider the criteria of __________, ________________________, ______________, and ____________.
paradigm; theory breadth; broader *paradigm shift*
It is notable that Fisher calls his approach a ______________ rather than a __________. Fisher uses that term to signal the ___________ of his vision because a paradigm is considered __________ than a theory. Fisher states that "there is no genre, including technical communication, that is not an episode in the story of life". Thus, Fisher has constructed an approach to theoretical thinking that is more encompassing than any one specific theory. Fisher states that his use of the term paradigm refers to an effort to formalize and direct our understanding of the experience of all human communication. Furthermore, the use of the term "paradigm" indicates that Fisher's thinking represents a major shift from the thinking that had supported most previous theories of communication. Fisher believes he is capturing the fundamental nature of human beings with the insight that we are storytellers and that we experience our lives in narrative form. He contrasts his approach with what he calls the rational paradigm, which characterized previous Western thinking. In this way, Fisher presents what can be called a *_______________________*, or a significant change in the way people think about the world and its meanings.
structural; material; characterological reasons
Key Concepts in the Narrative Approach: Tracing the assumptions of the Narrative Paradigm leads us to a consideration of some of the key concepts that form the core of the theoretical framework: narration, narrative rationality (which includes coherence and fidelity). Coherence is made up of 3 types: __________, ___________, and _____________________________; and fidelity leads to the logic of good __________.
consistent
Logical Consistency: The Narrative Paradigm has been faulted for failing to be _______________ with some of the claims that Fisher makes about it. For instance, Rowland (1987) finds that the narrative approach does not actually provide a more democratic structure compared with the hierarchical system espoused by the rational world paradigm, nor does it completely offer an alternative to that paradigm. Rowland says that Fisher overstates the problem of domination of the public by the elite, or by the expert, in the rational world paradigm. In addition, Rowland argues that "there is nothing inherent in storytelling that guarantees that the elites will not control a society".
*Material coherence*
Material Coherence: *_____________________* refers to the degree of congruence between one story and other stories that seem related to it. For example, you may have heard several stories about why 2 friends of yours have stopped speaking to each other. If all the stories but one attribute the problem to one friend having misled the other, causing an embarrassing situation, you are unlikely to believe the one unique story. You would believe that the different story lacked material coherence.
*Narration* genre
Narration: *_________________* is often thought of simply as a story, but for Fisher, narration is much more than a plotted story with a beginning, middle, and end. In Fisher's perspective, narration includes any verbal or nonverbal account with a sequence of events to which listeners assign a meaning. Specifically, Fisher states, "When I use the term 'narration,' I do not mean a fictive composition whose propositions may be true or false and have no necessary relationship to the message of that composition. By 'narration,' I mean symbolic actions—words and/or deeds— that have sequence and meaning for those who live, create, or interpret them". This definition implies the need for a storyteller and a listener. Fisher's definition is extremely broad and parallels what many people think of as communication itself. This, of course, is Fisher's point: All communication is narrative. He argues that narrative is not a specific _________ (stories as opposed to poems, for example), but rather, it is a mode of social influence. Furthermore, it is his contention that all life is composed of narratives. When you listen to a class lecture, when you give an excuse to a professor for not turning in a paper on time, and when you read the newspaper, send a Tweet, talk to your friends, you are hearing and shaping narratives.
*narrative rationality* coherence; fidelity
Narrative Rationality: Given that our lives are experienced in narratives, we need a method for judging which ones to believe and which to disregard. This standard can be found in *_________________________*, which provides us with a means for judging narratives that is quite different from the traditional methods found in the rational world paradigm. As we mentioned previously, traditional tests of rationality include whether claims correspond to actual facts, whether all relevant facts have been considered, whether arguments are internally consistent, and whether the reasoning used conforms to standards of formal and informal logic. Narrative rationality, in contrast to traditional logic, operates on the basis of 2 different principles: __________________ and ____________.
broad
Scope: The critique that the Narrative Paradigm is too _________ mainly focuses on Fisher's claim that all communication is narrative. Researchers object to that claim for 2 reasons: First, some have questioned the utility of a definition that includes everything. -How meaningful is the definition of narrative if it means all communication behavior? -Critics have directed us to consider the question: Is there value in treating a ritual greeting ("Hi, how was your day?") and an involved narrative explaining one's desire for a divorce in the same way? Second, some researchers, notably Robert Rowland (1987, 1989), suggest that some forms of communication are not narrative in the way that Fisher maintains. -According to Rowland, science fiction and fantasy do not conform to most people's values. -Rather, these genres often challenge existing values. -Rowland also questions the utility of considering a novel (such as Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon) and a political pamphlet (such as one produced by the Committee on the Present Danger) both as narratives as Fisher does. -Although both tell stories about the repressive character of the Soviet system, they do so in such different ways that Rowland believes it does a disservice to both writings to place them in the same category. Furthermore, it complicates our understanding of the definition of narrative when 2 such disparate examples can both be labeled as narrative.
*structural coherence*
Structural Coherence: The type of consistency Fisher calls *_______________________* rests on the degree to which the elements of the story flow smoothly. When stories are confusing, when one part does not seem to lead to the next, or when the plot is unclear, then they lack structural coherence. If a friend tells you a story about breaking up with her boyfriend on email, but she fails to explain any of the events leading up to the breakup or why she chose to send an email, and then skips back to telling you how she and her boyfriend first met, you would think her story lacked structural coherence.
*good reasons* values
The Logic of Good Reasons: Related to Fisher's notion of fidelity is the primary method that he proposes for assessing narrative fidelity: the logic of *____________________*. Fisher asserts that when narratives possess fidelity, they constitute good reasons for a person to hold a particular belief or take an action. For example, Miles sees Jorge's stories as possessing fidelity, which makes the stories persuasive; the stories form good reasons for Miles to vote for Jorge. Fisher (1987) explains his concept of logic by saying that it means "a systematic set of procedures that will aid in the analysis and assessment of elements of reasoning in rhetorical interactions". Thus, logic for the narrative paradigm enables a person to judge the worth of stories. The logic of good reasons presents a listener with a set of values that appeal to her or him and form warrants for accepting or rejecting the advice advanced by any form of narrative. This does not mean that any good reason is equal to any other; it simply means that whatever prompts a person to believe a narrative is bound to a value or a conception of what is good. As Fisher describes it, this logic is a process consisting of 2 series of 5 questions that the listener asks about the narrative. The first 5 questions are the following: 1. Are the statements that claim to be factual in the narrative really factual? 2. Have any relevant facts been omitted from the narrative or distorted in its telling? 3. What are the patterns of reasoning that exist in the narrative? 4. How relevant are the arguments in the story to any decision the listener may make? 5. How well does the narrative address the important and significant issues of this case? These questions constitute a logic of reasons. To transform this into a logic of good reasons, there are 5 more questions that introduce the concept of ___________ into the process of assessing practical knowledge. These questions are as follows: 1. What are the implicit and explicit values contained in the narrative? 2. Are the values appropriate to the decision that is relevant to the narrative? 3. What would be the effects of adhering to the values embedded in the narrative? 4. Are the values confirmed or validated in lived experience? 5. Are the values of the narrative the basis for ideal human conduct?
consistent
The fourth assumption forms a core issue of the narrative approach. It asserts that people believe stories insofar as the stories seem internally _______________ and truthful. We will discuss this further in the next section when we describe the concept of narrative rationality.
reasons effective personal; reason traditional; narrative democratic
The second assumption of the Narrative Paradigm asserts that people make decisions about which stories to accept and which to reject on the basis of what makes sense to them, or good ___________. We will discuss what Fisher means by good reasons later in the chapter, but he does not mean strict logic or argument. This assumption recognizes that not all stories are equally _____________; instead, the deciding factor in choosing among stories is ____________ rather than an abstract code of argument, or what we traditionally call ________. From Fisher's point of view, in our chapter-opening vignette, Laura has told a story in her campaign flyer, too. Miles simply chooses to reject her story and accept Jorge's because it is more personally involving to him. Recent events—ranging from politicians' remarks about rape, to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, to the controversies over gay marriage, to the most recent presidential campaign— show us the reality of competing stories. As people listen to these conflicting stories, they choose among them. Their choices do not stem from ______________ logic but from _____________ logic. When people shift from traditional logic to narrative logic, Fisher believes their lives will be improved because narrative logic is more ________________ than formal logic. As Fisher (1984) asserts, "All persons have the capacity to be rational in the narrative paradigm". Whereas formal logic calls for an elite trained in the complexities of the logical system, the Narrative Paradigm calls on the practical wisdom that everyone possesses.
influences soundness context
The theory's third assumption deals with what specifically ________________ people's choices and provides good reasons for them. The rational world paradigm assumes that argument is ruled by the dictates of ________________. For Stephen Toulmin, the anatomy of an argument is the movement from data to a conclusion. This movement needs to be judged by soundness, or an examination of the formal logic that guides the conclusion. In contrast, the Narrative Paradigm suggests that soundness is not the only way to evaluate good reasons. In fact, soundness may not even be an accurate way of describing how people make this judgment. The Narrative Paradigm assumes that narrative rationality is affected by history, biography, culture, and character. Thus, Fisher introduces the notion of _________ into the Narrative Paradigm. People are influenced by the context in which they are embedded. Therefore, the material that appears persuasive to Miles is the material that is specifically relevant to him personally. It is not material that adheres to a code of formal logic and persuasion.
coherence; fidelity
Theory at a Glance: The Narrative Paradigm: This approach is founded on the principle that humans are storytelling animals. Furthermore, narrative logic is preferred over the traditional logic used in argument. Narrative logic, or the logic of good reasons, suggests that people judge the credibility of speakers by whether their stories hang together (have ______________) and ring true (have _______________). The Narrative Paradigm allows a democratic judgment of speakers because no one has to be specially trained in persuasion to be able to draw conclusions based on the concepts of coherence and fidelity.
Renaissance; scientific revolution philosophy science; technology *rational world paradigm*
This Aristotelian distinction did not prevent Aristotle himself from valuing all the different forms of communication equally, but it did provide a rationale for later theorists' preference for logic and reason over mythos, or story, and rhetoric. Much subsequent scholarship has focused on a struggle over these forms of discourse. Beginning at the end of the ____________________ period in Europe, the ____________________________ changed people's way of thinking about the world. It dethroned __________________ as the source of logic, placing logic instead within ___________ and _________________. But Fisher contends that this change was not a far- reaching one because both philosophy and science privilege a formal system of logic that continues to leave poetics or rhetoric in a devalued position. The mind-set, employed by many scholars, that regards logical thinking as primary is what Fisher calls the *___________________________*.
storytellers story; argument storytelling "narrative malleability" explain; shape
Throughout this book we have begun each chapter with a story about a person or several people who experience something through which we can illustrate the chapter's theory. The reason we have made this choice may be found within the theory of narration that Walter Fisher calls the Narrative Paradigm. The Narrative Paradigm promotes the belief that humans are _________________ and that values, emotions, and aesthetic considerations ground our beliefs and behaviors. In other words, we are more persuaded by a good ________ than by a good ______________. Thus, Fisher would explain Miles's decision to vote for Jorge on the basis of the stories Jorge presented in his campaign flyer. Fisher asserts that the essence of human nature is ____________________. Fisher is not alone in this belief. Other researchers have examined what they call "______________________" of constructs observing that people's minds can be changed about something based on good stories told by a credible storyteller. Robert Rowland (1989) comments that the idea that people are essentially storytellers has been adopted by many different disciplines including history, biology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, psychology, and theology. Communication studies has also been influenced by the interest in narration. John Lucaites and Celeste Condit (1985) assert "the growing belief that narrative represents a universal medium of human consciousness". Kirsten Theye (2008) agrees, arguing that "narratives are crucial in human communication as a way of explaining the world". In addition, some scholars assert that stories do more than __________ the world, they _________ our world.
less conservative
Utility: The Narrative Paradigm has critics who find it _____ than useful due to what they consider its conservative bias. K. McClure (2009) argues that the Narrative Paradigm is an overly __________________ theory because its focus on fidelity actually weds it to normative conceptions of rationality rather than freeing us from them as Fisher proposes he will do. William Kirkwood (1992) observes that Fisher's logic of good reasons focuses on prevailing values and fails to account for the ways in which stories can promote social change. In some ways, both Kirkwood and Fisher agree that this observation is more of an extension to the theory than a punishing critique. Fisher (1987) claims that humans are inventive and that we can accept new stories when they appeal to us. In this process we can change our values rather than demand that stories simply confirm our existing values. To a degree, Miles changed his values regarding the importance of voting and involvement in student life as a result of Jorge's narratives. Afsheen Nomai and George Dionisopoulos (2002) imply the same critique in their study of how the media advance the narrative of the American Dream. Nomai and Dionisopoulos analyze the story of Joe Cubas, an American sports agent who has brought more than 20 Cuban defectors to the United States to play baseball. They call this the "Cubas Narrative" and argue that the media coverage of Cubas and the ballplayers "illuminates a most benign and inviting myth of American capitalism . . . [while obscuring] the uncomfortable reality that the needs of the capitalist system bifurcate the Cuban refugees into 2 classes". The Narrative Paradigm may not easily allow access to marginalized or less popular stories in the culture. Kirsten Theye (2008) argues that her analysis of Vice President Dick Cheney's apologies, after shooting his friend in a hunting accident in 2006, shows that Fisher's distinction between narrative coherence and narrative fidelity is not useful. She states that it's impossible to separate the 2. Her suggestion is to forget the 2 components as separate concepts and instead focus on the basic question underlying narrative rationality: "whether a story rings true to the audience based on their experiences".
story; storytelling universal Homo narrans
We will briefly discuss each of the assumptions of the Narrative Paradigm, comparing them with their opposites in the rational world paradigm. First, the Narrative Paradigm assumes that the essential nature of humans is rooted in ______ and ____________________. As our opening example of Miles illustrates, stories persuade us, move us, and form the basis for our beliefs and actions. Miles had not heard much about the election for the president of the Multicultural Student Association on campus. In fact, Miles was rather apathetic about the election and had no real interest in, or opinions about, either candidate. Yet, after reading the compelling stories that Jorge included in his campaign literature, Miles decided to vote for Jorge. Miles found Laura's campaign material interesting but not nearly as involving as Jorge's. If the assumption of the rational world paradigm held true, we would expect the more rational argument to hold sway over Miles, and he should have decided to vote for Laura. The Narrative Paradigm explains his preference for Jorge. Fisher also believes in this first assumption because he observes that narrative is ______________—found in all cultures and time periods. Fisher asserts, "Any ethic, whether social, political, legal, or otherwise, involves narrative". This universality of narrative prompts Fisher to suggest the term _____________ as the overarching metaphor for defining humanity. Fisher was influenced in his approach by reading moral theory espoused by Alasdair MacIntyre (1981). MacIntyre observes that "man [sic] is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a stortelling animal". Fisher used MacIntyre's ideas as the foundation for the Narrative Paradigm. James Elkins (2001) agrees with Fisher's assumption about the centrality of stories for humans. Elkins observes that people "turn to stories to both survive and to imagine, as well as for a host of instrumental purposes, for pleasure, and because we must. Stories are part of our human inheritance". Other researchers concur noting stories provide humans the means to account for their own experiences and behaviors.
