Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Organisers

Name(s) of the organiser(s):

IDNS-PE: Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies in Psychology & Educational Sciences

Contact person:

Gerrit Loots

Email address contact person:

Gerrit.loots@vub.ac.be

VUB postal address contact person:

Pleinlaan 2, gebouw B/C, lokaal 3B251a

 

Content description activity

Title activity:

Beyond narrative: The shape of traumatic testimony

Short description:

This research workshop in narrative studies focuses on limits and problems of narrative research, and exploring ways forward. The morning session explores the limits and possibilities of narratives in relation to traumatic testimony. The afternoon session looks beneath the surface in interview transcripts. Extracts from interviews will be presented to discuss a series of problems in narrative research.

Competences:

Having insights in the limits and problems of narrative research.

Previous knowledge:

Elementary knowledge of narrative analysis

Content:

Molly Andrews is Professor in Sociology and Co-director of the Centre for Narrative Research (www.uelac.uk/cnr/index.htm) at the University of East London. Her research interests include the psychological basis of political commitment, psychological challenges posed by societies in times of acute political change, the psychology of patriotism, the politics of remembering, gender and aging, and counter-narratives.

The seminar will be in two parts:
The morning lecture will explore the limits and possibilities of narratives in which individuals turn to language to communicate the inexpressibility of experiences they have endured. The central dilemma for many survivors of trauma is that they must tell their stories, and yet their stories cannot be told. Traumatic experiences often defy understanding; testimony of those who have survived can be marked by what is not there: coherence, structure, meaning, and comprehensibility. The actual emplotment of trauma testimony into conventional narrative configurations - contained in time - transforms them into something which they are not: experiences which are endowed with a particular wholeness, which occurred in the past, and which have now ended. The lecture concludes with a discussion of the relationship between language and silence in traumatic testimony.
In the afternoon workshop participants are invited to look beneath the surface in interview transcripts. Dr. Andrews will present extracts from interviews to illustrate a series of problems she has encountered in her narrative research.

Study material:

See the content description

Condition(s) for attribution of credits (e.g. active participation or mode of assessment):

Active participation

 

Technical data activity

Start date:

The new date is 10 May 2010, 10:00. (Because of Eurostar problems, the original date could not be kept.)
The first session will end at 12:00. The second session will start at 13:00, and ends at 16:00.

End date:

10 May 2010 - 16:00

Location:

D.2.01

Language(s) used for activity:

English.

Number of meetings:

1

Maximum number of participants:

30

Privileged participants (description and number)(*):

PhD students and staff members

Credits for participation:

1 credit for active participation

Website:

None

Registration:

Please contact Gerrit Loots at gerrit.loots@vub.ac.be

 

(*) Privileged participants will be given priority when registering, other participants can register if places are still available.