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Matti Hyvärinen, Lars-Christer Hydén, Marja Saarenheimo, and Maria Tamboukou, eds. Beyond Narrative Coherence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, Studies in Narrative, 196 pp. ISBN 978-9027226518, $135.00.
In the introduction to this volume, the editors present the unifying theme of the book: the articulation of a perspective on narrative that far from identifying coherence as a main characteristic, stresses fragmentation and multiplicity as equally important to narrative theory and analysis. The objective is to show that there is a great deal of instability and fragmentation in the forms and organization of tellings, and to expose the inherent dangers of such a conception in theoretical methodological terms. The editors argue that concentrating on coherence leads to the neglect of narratives and narrative phenomena that do not fi t the canon, to a bias that leads researchers to look for coherence at all costs, and to a lack of attention to the voice of populations and individuals who have been traumatized or marginalized. The contributions develop this challenge against coherence-based narrative perspectives in three different subject areas: the arts, illness, and trauma in the political context.
In Chapter 2, Maria Medved and Jens Brockmeier argue against a direct connection between mental well-being and narrative coherence, as well as against the equation of the latter with the establishment of self identity. They illustrate how the study of autobiographical narratives based on these premises leads to particularly misleading conclusions in the case of individuals whose ability to produce coherent narratives has been impaired by neurological damage. The meaning and coherence of narratives told by those individuals can only be fully appreciated when taking into account their autobiographical history, the sociocultural context in which narratives and narrators are situated, and the intersubjective context in which the stories are told.
In Chapter 3, Lars Christer Hydén emphasizes that autobiographical stories, which are overwhelmingly studied from the point of view of coherence and...