All of Our Stories are Our Own:…/ 5 ‘All of Our Stories are Our Own’: Investigating the Structure of Brief Personal Experience Narratives from Pakistan Fizza Farrukh* Instructor, Humanities Department, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Virtual Campus, Islamabad [email protected] Anmol Ahmad Instructor, Humanities Department, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Virtual Campus, Islamabad [email protected] Abstract Narratives provide a structured medium to construct and collect human experiences into a sequential word order. The current qualitative study employs the method of narrative analysis to investigate twenty-five narratives, belonging to the Pakistani context, obtained from the collection of narratives archived on ‘The Humans of New York’ blog. Labov’s Natural Narrative Model (1972) was applied to decipher the similarities and differences in structural foundation lying within these accounts as compared to those structural patterns outlined by the model itself. The findings revealed the introduction of the stories to mingle with the main plot and complicating action of the tale, instead of significantly separating them one-by-one. Furthermore, the orientation and complicating action portions are detailed structures, comprising of three and more statements, and include evaluation embedded within them. Such discovered patterns highlight the importance of investigating and learning about the structure of narratives, particularly for the English language teachers and learners; it enables them to construct their stories, whether spoken or written, in accordance with the emerging patterns and makes them realize how different elements of the story bring about different functions. Keywords: Narrative Analysis, Textual Structure, Personal Experience Narratives, Pakistani Narrations, English Language Learning Introduction are actually compiling them into an order Analyzing narratives insightfully enables us and making sense out of them. In such a to develop an understanding of the way in way, these experiential stories do not simply which the particular author has constructed remain tales; rather, they take the shape of a meaning and represented his / her definite pattern and structure which has a experiences for the reader to comprehend. proper beginning, middle and ending to it. According to Riessman (1993), when narrators helps us to understand how people develop are giving words to their experiences, they coherence, structure and meaning in those * Corresponding Author Submission date: Dec 28, 2015 Acceptance date: Mar 3, 2016 6 / IJRELT- Volume 3, No. 2, Autumn & Winter 2015-16 narrations. Furthermore, they enable the structural criterion then it will be termed as researchers to reflect on the manner in a narrative. Within the structure of a which the narrator negotiates through narrative, the independent clauses are language. connected through a ‘temporal juncture’ The genre of narrative research has (Hogan, 2011, p. 547). This particular juncture gained significant importance in the field of exists only in those cases where a modification educational research, especially because in the order of the narrative clauses, pedagogues themselves are narrators produces an alteration in the interpreted (Moen, 2006); they incorporate personal meaning of the story and its sequence. experiences within their lectures to help the Understanding the structure of a text is students relate with the novel information of necessary importance for any reader and knowledge being delivered to them in because it enables him / her to comprehend class. They need to be aware of how to those particular notions which the author fittingly construct an exacting story, to actually wanted to commune (Meyer, 1999). make it fully attention-grabbing for their In other words, the responsibility of the students. Moreover, the knowledge of writer is to produce a coherent text and the narrative research is also of value for the function of the reader is to endeavor to craft English language learners as they require the obtained information in a rational way. awareness on how a narrative is constructed In such a way, studying the narrative holds in the target language as it will enable them a significant value, being part of the text to give words to their own experiential genre, in general. stories, allowing them to improve their The renowned framework developed for communication skills too. critically analyzing the structure of a narrative is Labov’s Model of Natural Literature Review Narrative (1972). This model was Narratives are one of the first discursive developed as a study originating from genres to be analyzed as a part of language- hundreds of discourses of speakers in based studies (Barbara, 2001). Discourse various social contexts. Labov (1972) analysts have consistently been investigating postulated this framework by separating the it for enhancing the understanding of recurring main elements of each narrative’s narrative structures, their particular functions structure. These constituents include the and their variety with reference to the following: ‘abstract’, ‘orientation’, ‘complicating particular culture and context they come action’, ‘resolution’, ‘evaluation’ and ‘coda’. from (Son, 2008). This genre, particularly, The ‘abstract’ implies that the narration has is characteristically human in nature, started. Furthermore, it attempts to briefly because it is this living specie which makes summarize the beginning and also tends to sense of its world through communicating attract the attention of the audience stories. Furthermore, according to Barbara (Simpson, 2004). Then comes the ‘orientation’, (2001), human beings grew their sense of which basically explains which individuals rationality through utilization of this are involved in the tale, along with medium as well. Thus, Polkinghorne (1988) elucidating the time and location of the rightly remarks that there are no human particular event which is about to be beings without narratives in our world. narrated. After commencement of the Labov (1972) explains that narratives ‘orientation’, the next part is the formulate a set of clauses, which follow the ‘complicating action’ which explicates the sequence of the actual happened narrative actual happening of the story, that is, the event. In other words, if a text fulfills the key incident. Then, the ‘resolution’ expresses All of Our Stories are Our Own:…/ 7 the narrative account’s final significant Methodology happening. After this, the ‘evaluation’ An understanding of the narrative structure section explains the function of narrating is essential for comprehending how humans this particular anecdote. This part helps assemble their lives’ occurrences and validate the necessity of the narration’s negotiate their perspectives through connected existence in the first place. However, words and phrases. The qualitative means according to Simpson (2004), this part is bringing such an interpretive approach to taken as an optional feature in some the study; this approach allows the narrative contexts and can be omitted by the investigator to infer a phenomenon based storyteller. Lastly, the concluding part of on the meanings, representations and the story is termed as ‘coda’. It gives a notions provided to him/her (Denzin & pointer that the story has concluded and, Lincoln, 2011). Moreover, such an many a times, it is a general statement giving interpretative approach for studying the a moral implicative out of the aforementioned experiential narratives of the Pakistani event, or a feeling of timelessness. community, in particular, becomes necessary Narratives have been explored and for illustrating the struggles faced by the scrutinized from various perspectives by particular narrators and will address how scholars, around the world. However, they reflect back on the significant within the scenario of Pakistan, very few experiences of their lives. research initiatives have been taken for There is a wide variety of the types of exploration of the genre of the narrative. narratives; diverse disciplines have Among these, one is a study by Hashwani formulated diverse models to explain the (2013) in which the researcher investigated existence of narratives. Multiple fields, narratives for exploring the development of including history and social psychology, personal and professional identity of have focused on those accounts which are English teachers belonging to Karachi. The extracted from interviews (Thornborrow & study concluded that the respective instructors Coates, 2010). Keeping this perspective in felt pride in bearing their professional forefront, the current study utilizes this identity; also, it further concludes that the particular genre as the units of analysis. The respective pedagogues took pleasure in study adheres on the narratives from varying their language choices and linguistic Pakistan brought forward by the blog repertoires according to various social known as Humans of New York contexts which they encounter in their day- (www.humansofnewyork.com) being run to-day life. by Brandon Stanton. These were gathered Moreover, there is another study by Stanton in the year 2015 during his visit conducted by Siddique (2010) on particularly to Pakistan. Stanton said, in an interview the narratives themed on colonial with university students, “What I am displacement. These stories reveal that the always looking for is what that person has pre-partition Muslim culture was widely told me that nobody else has told