In Narratives in East Asia and Beyond: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Using Narratives as a Research Method, contributors from diverse fields jointly argue for the interdisciplinary appeal of using narratives as a research method. Scholars from the fields of philosophy of narrative, ethnographic research, linguistics, political sciences, international relations, and area studies reflect on how to approach, understand, and utilize narratives to comprehend social structures and interactions. The volume attempts to reflect on a range of questions, including: How can narrative studies broaden and deepen the scope of research in other fields? What connections exist between narratives and identities (individual and collective)? How does analyzing narratives help us better understand the dynamics of the policy change and the perceptions of self and other? The essays range from reflections on the role of narrativity in cognitive processes, interview settings, and in constructing historical memories to the analysis of narrator and audience perspectives on the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, evaluations of roles and legitimation strategies, as well as interpretations of documentary films. The authors show the flexibility and fruitfulness of incorporating narratives into research agendas in a wide range of disciplines and highlight the theoretical and empirical research benefits that narrative studies open up.
Elizaveta Priupolina is research associate at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Tanja Daniela Eckstein is research associate and PhD candidate at the IN-EAST (Institute for East Asian Studies) at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Part I. Interdisciplinary Reflections on Narrative Analysis Chapter 1: Narration as a Platform for Interdisciplinarity: The Inter- and Cross-Disciplinarity of the Narrative Approach Grigorii L. Tulchinskii Chapter 2: On Semantic Tools of Constructing of Historical Memory (in Movses Khorenatsi's History of Armenia) Suren Zolyan Chapter 3: Narratives in Interviews as Research Methods: A Linguistic Anthropological Perspective Sabina M. Perrino Part II. Narratives as a Research Method in China Studies Chapter 4: Negotiating Sense of Belonging in Documentary Narrative: A Discourse Analysis of a Chinese Gourmet Program Yunfeng Ge and Hong Wang Chapter 5: Analyzing Legitimation Strategies: BRI in Covid-19 Crisis Shubham Karmakar Chapter 6: Narrating the BRI in Europe: Examining Agency and Positioning in the German Logistics Sector Connor Malloy and Theo Westphal Chapter 7: Rationalization, Polarization, and Moral Tales: Legitimation of China's Leadership in the CCTV Documentary "Daguo Waijiao" Elizaveta Priupolina, Tanja Eckstein, and Nele Noesselt
"This collection offers useful tools for anyone who wants to explore the role narratives play in all kinds of politics in the region. This offers a path for those who want to research how our narrative experience shapes our political behaviour -- sometimes with important effects." -- Ben O'Loughlin, Royal Holloway, University of London
