Narrativity and Professional Communication: Folktales and Community Meaning

Christine Kelly New York University ; Michele Zak Saint Mary's College of California

Abstract

Narrative has been neglected in the education of professionals. The persuasive power of narrative is essential to all the sense-making activities that govern the lives of professionals, for in sense making, they are regularly using narrative. The central example here is the O. J. Simpson legal defense that was organized within the narrative frame of Simpson's story. The authors compare his story with a famous Norwegian folktale to illustrate the role narratives play in amplifying the values of a community. Using Propp's structural analysis of the folktale, they deconstruct the Simpson trial, which reveals implications of the narrative paradigm for the professional.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
1999-07-01
DOI
10.1177/105065199901300304
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

References (26)

  1. A Barthes Reader
  2. 10.2307/256618
  3. Law's Stories: Narrative and Rhetoric in the Law
  4. New Yorker Magazine
  5. A Rhetoric of Motives
Show all 26 →
  1. Harper's Magazine
  2. 10.5465/AME.1991.4274713
  3. Eccles, Robert G., Nitin Nohria, and James D. Berkley. “Rhetoric: The Work of Words.” Beyond the Hype: Redisc…
  4. Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action
  5. 10.1080/03637758409390180
  6. Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association
  7. Communication: The Process of Organizing
  8. Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular
  9. Narratives of Human Evolution
  10. Newsweek
  11. The Rhetoric of Economics
  12. Communication and Power in Organizations: Discourse, Ideology, and Domination
  13. 10.2307/1772192
  14. Morphology of the Folktale
  15. Lingua Franca
  16. Tell Me a Story
  17. A Children's Treasury of Fairy Tales
  18. Case Studies in Organizational Communication: Perspectives on Contemporary Work Life
  19. The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson
  20. Sensemaking in Organizations
  21. Organizational Symbolism