I especially understood the metaphor of the 3-dimensional space after the story of Ming Fang writing her dissertation in Canada. When the author wrote “at the intersection of place and time” and “at the intersection of looking inward and place” it made me think of a complex system of roads that twist and lead in different directions but they all lead to the same location, understanding. It’s not just one straight, easy road to understanding, you might have to stop at an intersection and turn left to look at place before moving on to time or looking inward to get the entirety of a person’s experience before understanding that person. A person is made up of intricate systems of veins, nerves and mind, so it makes sense that understanding his experiences will be just as difficult as the organism himself. I don’t think we can ever fully understand a person but narrative inquiry is a step towards trying to.
Quotes:
By inward, we mean toward the internal conditions, such as feelings, hopes, aesthetic reactions, and moral dispositions. By outward, we mean toward the existential conditions, that is, the environment. By backward and forward, we refer to temporality--past, present, and future. We wrote that to experience an experience--that is, to do research into an experience--is to experience it simultaneously in these four ways and to ask questions pointing each way.
To turn the use of the terms more toward their experimental origins, we could think of them not so much as generating a list of understandings achieved by analyzing the stories, but rather as pointing to questions, puzzles, fieldwork, and field texts of different kinds appropriate to different aspects of the inquiry. Thus, we might see Ming Fang collecting memory records of the cultural revolution through conversations and interviews with her participants or, perhaps, reviewing posters, slogans, and news accounts of the era.
As we worked within our three-dimensional spaces as narrative inquirers, what became clear to us was that as inquirers we meet ourselves in the past, the present, and the future. What we mean by this is that we tell remembered stories of ourselves from earlier times as well as more current stories. All of these stories offer possible plotlines for our futures.
As we worked wi thin our thr e e -dimens iona l spaces as narrative in
quirers, wha t became clear to us was tha t as inqui r e r s we me e t our
selves in the past, the present, and the future. Wha t we me an by this
is tha t we tell r emembe r ed stories of ourselves f rom earlier times as
well as more current stories. All of these stories offer possible plotlines for our futures.
As we worked wi thin our thr e e -dimens iona l spaces as narrative in
quirers, wha t became clear to us was tha t as inqui r e r s we me e t our
selves in the past, the present, and the future. Wha t we me an by this
is tha t we tell r emembe r ed stories of ourselves f rom earlier times as
well as more current stories. All of these stories offer possible plotlines for our futures.
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