In Telling Stories, Mary Jo Maynes, Jennifer L. Pierce, and Barbara
Laslett argue that personal narratives--autobiographies, oral histories,
life history interviews, and memoirs--are an important research tool for
understanding the relationship between people and their societies.
Gathering examples from throughout the world and from premodern as well
as contemporary cultures, they draw from labor history and class
analysis, feminist sociology, race relations, and anthropology to
demonstrate the value of personal narratives for scholars and students
alike.
Telling Stories explores why and how personal narratives should be
used as evidence, and the methods and pitfalls of their use. The authors
stress the importance of recognizing that stories that people tell about
their lives are never simply individual. Rather, they are told in
historically specific times and settings and call on rules, models, and
social experiences that govern how story elements link together in the
process of self-narration. Stories show how individuals' motivations,
emotions, and imaginations have been shaped by their cumulative life
experiences. In turn, Telling Stories demonstrates how the knowledge
produced by personal narrative analysis is not simply contained in the
stories told; the understanding that takes place between narrator and
analyst and between analyst and audience enriches the results
immeasurably.
