Narrative Theory and Stories that Speak to Us - by Cynthia L. Selfe and the DALN Consortium
Because literacy narratives are imbricated with the literacy codes and myths individuals have absorbed, both consciously and unconsciously, as part of their cultural and individual experiences, Susan DeRosa (2004) notes, such stories also provide spaces to envision “potential and possibility . . . ways to move beyond those myths” (p. 11-12).
In the globalized context of 21st century digital environments—which often cross conventional linguistic, cultural, and geopolitical borders—storytellers use narratives both to identify the groups they belong to and the groups they oppose (Kraus, 2006), simultaneously constructing multiple and hybrid relational identities that resist simplistic binaries and embrace concepts such as métissage (Zuss, 1997; Lapalantine & Nouss, 2001) and créolisation (Glissant, 1997). Hybrid narrative constructions of belonging, Kraus continues, are not only theoretical but also political efforts that entail both “self positioning and the positioning by others” (p. 103).
…[A]utobiography can be conceived “politically.” One knows that one's life is similar to that of a thousand others, but through “chance” it has had opportunities that the thousand others in reality could not or did not have. By narrating it, one creates this possibility, suggests the process, indicates the opening.
(Gramsci, 1985, p. 132)
Neither the body nor thoughts and feelings have meaning outside their discursive articulation, but the ways in which discourse constitutes the minds and bodies of individuals is always part of a wider network of power relations, usually with institutional bases.
(Weedon, 1987, p. 108)