Please stop using the word "narrative" in political discourse

[bluestateguy]

That is pseudo intellectual corporate media claptrap. Pundits like to throw the word around to make themselves look smart.

I hear the word narrative and I look on my bookshelf for a Hawthorne or Melville book.

[ixion]

1. If you don't think there is a narrative, you're mistaken

in my opinion.

I'll not stop using a word I believe is entirely accurate to describe the 'framing' process.

[applegrove]

14. That is what we are when it comes down to it - our narratives. And that is what the politicians

exploit. Why should we give up the very words that give us power and are a fine description of a huge part of us where politics is concerned.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. I hate that word too. It means a tale. I'm sick of tales. nt

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Read Political Activism and Narrative Analysis: The Biographical Template and the Meat Pot

Political Activism and Narrative Analysis: The Biographical Template and the Meat Pot


3. Political Narratives

The notion of "political narrative" has been used in an increasing number of ways. For example, it has been taken as synonymous with "political discourse" or any individual story has been taken as a "political narrative" since all accounts of relationships reveal the power and domination. Some of the uses or overlaps with other areas have included: the political autobiography; political biography as including stories; forms of testimony and evidence, including accounts of repression and torture by victims and perpetrators (e.g. truth commissions); health, illness and injury narratives as political statements; historical political narratives. Further areas include: policy narratives; political psychology and narrative, ideology as narrative, analytic narratives to understand the political order; narrative journalism; oral histories of the "unheard", including women's histories; the political use of oral histories; political "talk" and speeches; political beliefs as narrative; and accounts of specific political fights and personal manifestos. <12>

Individual "stories" of struggle and achievement are found within many forms of biographical research often as part of a commitment which gives a "voice" to those previously "unheard" and repressed (ROBERTS, 2002, p.25). Such accounts can be a "significant resource for political groups and emergent social movements" such as: indigenous peoples, women's movements, ethnic communities, immigrant groups, working class communities, the disabled, trace unions, the women's movement, lesbian and gay groups, political campaigners, trade unionists and working class communities, survivors of sexual abuse, communities facing economic disruption (PERKS & THOMSON, 1995, pp.184-185).3) <13>

Political narrative as "biography" is a very well established genre; politicians, campaigners and activists commonly give accounts of their lives and, their days in power or campaigning, in autobiographies (sometimes "ghosted") or even by publishing their diaries. There may be a number of reasons for publication: as a justification of past action, to leave an "historical record", enhance or restore reputation, as a role-model to others, as part of a campaign objective, to make money, to show another side of character or interests, show an inner struggle, and so on. RAMPHELE gives a number of reasons for writing her autobiography A Life (RAMPHELE, 1996, Preface) but, of course, the reasons for giving a "life account" can differ over time and context, and there may be both immediate and underlying reasons. <14>

Narrative in the context of politics is a legitimate word, because it is used to sell a story about a policy or person.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. no

[Canuckistanian]

5. Only if you stop using the word "discourse"

I hate that word.

[LARED]

6. It's a perfectly good word

I will use it.

[TheKentuckian]

7. Nope, policies and debates require context. We must present and refute narratives

that is how it works. Just because your guy has decided not to be caught dead presenting one or opposing the ones the TeaPubliKlans drum away at doesn't mean they don't exist.

[KT2000]

8. Narrative is the key though

And that is what the Democratic establishment does not understand.
When a lawyer gives opening and closing statements he/she is telling the story the jury needs to believe to achieve the desired outcome.
The republicans are good at story-telling and have developed a story that is snagging many people. Free markets mean free people; lower taxes means more money for you; shredding the safety net means more for the good people and nothing for the bad people. They have even convinced people that God wants it that way. In sum - They are the strong ones.

What is the story the Democrats are telling the American people? Simply, we cannot stand up to your nonsensical bullshit so we will cave before we even start. Yeah - that is who I want to hitch my wagon to - What comes across is "We are weak" in the absence of any other story.

Most things are about the "narrative." But I understand also it has become a buzzword.

[AsahinaKimi]

9. Can we use

Narwhalative ?


:hide:

[ljm2002]

10. But you get to talk about "political discourse"?

No thanks.

Narrative is extremely important. What we get from the media is either disjointed political facts and positions, or they report it like they're reporting on a sporting event -- i.e. who just scored a point, who just got tackled, or they recount the right wing narrative where, for example, the U.S. budget is just like a family budget and gosh darn it, if they can't balance their checkbook how can we trust them?

We do need narratives to tell our side of the story, it is what sticks in the minds of listeners. It also provides some logic for a position, which I think is important.

[fishwax]

11. I think narrative is important

and that understanding political narratives is an important part of understanding politics.

[pipi_k]

12. Shit...

I'm losing track of all the words and phrases we're not supposed to be using here...

[PufPuf23]

13. I used the word "narrative" in a recent post.

Why the insults?

"Narrative" is a valid and often used method in political and media discourse (lolol).

[closeupready]

15. The right-wing operates using an unofficial narrative about, for exa., The American Dream

or one of Ayn Rand's second-rate books. With media complicity, they push talking points designed to brainwash Americans into recognizing the 'narrative' in their daily lives, and thus, narratives can be very powerful in getting your way.

[Better Believe It]

16. I agree with you but think we are in a small minority. I just wonder how much that term ....

is used in political discussions among typical working class people.

Hardly ever.

But, most of us on DU are probably college educated.

[LooseWilly]

22. In a working class pol. discussion it's called a "bullshit story"...

As in "So Bachman, with this submissive wife thing, but submissive means 'respect'— what kind of bullshit story is she trying to sell?"

Since you can't say "bullshit story" about Obama's self-description (for example) as having worked as a community organizer, wanting to re-connect to the days of civil rights activism, going to law school in order to be able to make a bigger impact, yadda yadda yadda... in any "respectable" venue of public speech (tv news/puditry, newspaper story or editorial, blog that wants to be taken remotely seriously, any venue frequented by educated white people who've become so didactic that they'd need a colonoscopy in order to find their senses of humor, etc.)... the more esoteric term for a "bullshit story", drawn from literary criticism, "narrative" is instead used.

Of course, if the "narrative" is being "bought into"... it's more like "Submission means 'respect'... yeah, I've always kind of thought that too. She seems ok, really. Someone that seems real, that gets it."

[moondust]

17. "Narrative World"

"It's as if there are two dimensions. There's a real world of people and events and facts, and then there's -- there's a narrative world in which there is only storyline." Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist at the Washington Post, on The Rachel Maddow Show, 02/25/11

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_02/028177.php

[grahamhgreen]

18. It's all about the narrative.

[Crunchy Frog]

19. One of the problems with progressives

is that they don't believe narrative is important in politics; and it is. It's one of the big things that our party fails to "get" IMO.

[LooseWilly]

20. Since the public is hung up on gossipy personality-driven stories (narratives)... they will endure.

A public that will read about celebrity goings-on but not about the exclusion of Single Payer advocates from a Health Care Reform discussion... is more concerned with "narratives" (Who's Brangelina adopting next? I want to hear the whole story. What's the new American Idol contender's story?)... than it is with "analytical examination".

If that's what the public is willing to "consume", that's what politicians will "serve".

And it's not "pseudo intellectual corporate media claptrap"... it's "corporate marketing attention-grabbing media claptrap". Pundits don't "throw it around to make themselves look smart", they "throw it around" to deconstruct the marketing gimmicks that the politicians are employing— it's just a label for an aspect of "marketing the brand" of a given politician.

If I tell you the story of some idiot who cut me off in traffic the other day— that's a "narrative"; if I then go on to tell you how the perceptiveness that I demonstrated in seeing the poor-traffic-maneuver in advance and not running into the nimrod— that's a "narrative" that can be "leveraged" in order to "sell my story" of "qualification" for {fill the blank with office or position in question}.

If you refuse to acknowledge that "they" are trying to manipulate you... then you'll probably be manipulated.

[EFerrari]

23. The ability to tell stories is pretty much what distinguishes us

from the other apes.

[LooseWilly]

24. Hehe... and here you have provided a "narrative" to justify Human Domination of the planet...

Why would politicians stop using them to "sell their stories"?... and Why would reporters/pundits ever stop seeing and asking of the details that politicians intended to embed within those stories?...

It wonders me...

[Igel]

25. Nice false dichotomy.

Oops. That big word. You nice make things all black all white, just black just white. Look at DU screen. Not all black and white. Color. Grey.

You also shift definitions. Perhaps it's because you're not sure of them. "Please take a shot. Load that camera, fire and knock the bird out of the sky, but remember, one shot an hour and you're legally intoxicated."

There are different registers in English. No one class or set of people get to dictate to everybody else. You don't like how things are said, go away and find your own way of talking so that you don't have to be bothered by how your lessers' talk. We know big words, we been school, learn things. It's like the inane argument that Medicare isn't an entitlement. For a narrow group of self-appointed definers of English words, sure; for the rest of us they're showing their narrow-mindedness.

Quantum chemists, electrical engineers, astrophysicists all speak in terms of "story." Now, granted, many think chemistry, engineering, and astrophysics is bullshit. After all, when did you benefit from electrical engineering or chemistry? A fancy word is "account," in some contexts we call them "theories." Some stories are bull; some aren't. It takes a wise person to tell the difference. Or at least an informed person. But as soon as you have cause and effect, a sequence of actions or states, you have a story, a narrative. If you want to come up with an explanation, you're producing an account, yet another word for story.

A story isn't bullshit because it's a story. A story is bullshit because it's bullshit; if it's not bullshit, it's not bullshit. But some social dialects have innovated meanings, connotations, and the more totalitarian speakers of those dialects just can't wrap their brains around linguistic diversity.

As a professor once told me, when a person says that they're just concerned with the facts they're either stupid or lying or both. That person still presents facts in order to present a point of view. They just don't admit that they have a theory or story--either because that would be putting you on guard or because they simply aren't self-aware enough to spot their own story. But they also don't present random facts. Random facts are meaningless. Facts without a story to unify them are random, out of necessity.

[libodem]

21. As long as dollars are free speech

And corporations are people. I'll use what ever words I want. I am tired of the 'takes offence league'. One time its 'level playing field' another it is retard or gay.

[BackToThe60s]

26. Better "narrative"

than "trope." Ugh!