Narrative and plot

I argued above that narratives have certain structures to hold them together, although there is no consensus about what these are. Some researchers argue that narratives can be typified by a particular genre (Tonkin 1992, Riessman 2000) or plot, or way of persuading the listener that events

happened in a certain way. Czarniawska (1998) suggests that a narrative has three elements: an original state of affairs, an action or event and a

consequent state of affairs, but that these only become a narrative when they have a plot. In this way, the plot of a narrative can be understood as the means by which particular phenomena are brought into a meaningful whole (Czarniawska 2004), or created from disordered experience (Riessman 2008). Plots therefore, are created from fragmented events, but the plot itself creates an ordered ‘whole’ (Riessman 2000). The plot of a narrative can then be described as how people impose order on their experiences (Riessman 1993) and as how narrative analysts impose structure.

Most narratives have a plot, although these can vary in type and often the narrator indicates how they wish to be understood within their narrative (Labov and Waletsky 1967, Gubrium and Holstein 1998). Plot can also be understood in terms of ‘patterned expectancy’ (Tonkin 1992 p. 51), that is, agreement between speaker and listener on what sort of interpretation is to be made:

‘Genres depend on shared rules of interpretation: they are not explicable by form alone’ (Tonkin 1992 p. 50).

Plots are taken from an available repertoire that is culturally and temporally specific; they are linked to the social and cultural context of their production since all narratives are socially and culturally located and reflect and

reproduce these locations. It is useful to analyse plot in this way since this approach can:

‘Weave into the story the historical and social context…and thoughts and feelings reported by people’ (Czarniawska 1998 p 125).

I have highlighted throughout the preceding chapters my concern with context and with the motives of women who moved from the UK to Spain and I use plot to highlight how women in Spain experience and construct this through their narratives of community.

Czarniawska (2004) refers to ‘ending embedded plot’, which is where the logical connections between various episodes only become visible in the end. For my work this means I apply the plot typologies of the quest and the

voyage and return to make sense of women’s experiences and intentions. I discuss this in more detail below. The work of Ricouer 1984, 1985 and 1988) is also particularly useful in relation to understanding plot and narrative. He describes narrative in terms of a ‘production’ drawing from the work of

Aristotle (in Poetics) who regarded narrative as the memesis – or imitation - of lived experience. Plot (or ‘muthos’ for Aristotle) is not seen as a static

structure but the work of composition, giving dramatic identity to the story recounted. Ricouer (1984)uses the term ‘emplotment’ to denote this ‘poetic act’, and again, emplotment can be understood as bringing together disparate elements of a story to create a coherent whole. Narrating lived experiences imposes a structure upon them, so emplotment can be seen as the

organisation of events in narrative. Plot therefore makes one story out of multiple incidents and transforms the many incidents to one whole story.

Gubrium and Holstein (2009) describe narrative linkage as ‘a meaning making process’ (2009 p. 55) and argue that:

‘No item of experience is meaningful in its own right. It is made meaningful through the particular ways it is linked to other items. Linkage creates a context for understanding’ (2009 p. 55).

Further there are two aspects to narrative linkage. First, linkage occurs inside the text, and this is how the storyteller assembles the details or disparate events into a meaningful account. I interpret this as relating to the plot of a narrative and I discuss this in relation to the quest and the voyage and return throughout chapters five, six and seven. For the purpose of my analysis, the

different groups of women in my research link their stories differently

depending on the ending embedded in the plot (Czarniawska 2004) of their narratives. Second, linkage also happens outside of the text. Gubrium and Holstein (2009) suggest that in this second aspect, background information- or ethnographic understanding - is provided by the narrator to contextualise their narrative and provide alternative meanings. Narrators provide contextual information by removing themselves from their narrative. Gubrium and

Holstein (2009) describe it thus:

‘The lived and circumstantial dimensions of linkage are likely to be missing –unless the storyteller…steps outside the account to contextualise it for us; (2009 p. 59).

Throughout my analysis I draw upon both aspects of narrative linkage. I do this in relation to plot as indicated above and I also in relation to when women step outside of their stories to provide contextual information. Further, through the process of analysis, I also use ethnographic understanding to illuminate meaning. In Chapter Seven I assess how place, networks and ethnic identity are linked and in Chapter Eight I discuss how narrative linkage is useful to draw together these different representations of community. Importantly, I do not treat plot as inherent to a narrative: instead, women emplot their

narratives and subsequently I impose structure upon them for analytical purposes.

I use Booker’s (2004) classification of plots to identify key plot types in

women’s narratives of community in Spain. Booker’s (2004) work is based on an interest in why people tell stories and the kinds of stories that are told. He synthesises a wide range of examples from literature, film, the Bible, ancient myths and folk tales. He concludes that all of these can be reduced to seven basic plot typologies as follows: overcoming the monster; rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return; comedy; tragedy; and rebirth. In common to all of these, according to Booker (2004) there is likely to be a central figure on whose fate the story hinges, and this is often the teller with whom we identify. The plot-lines I use for analysing women’s narratives of community in Spain are the ‘quest’, denoting to seek or search (from the Latin ‘quaere’), and

‘voyage and return’. I adopt these plot typologies in the first instance because women talked of migrating to Spain in retirement as a journey, both physically and emotionally. Both the quest and voyage and return centre on a journey taking place, although the endings embedded within each diverge, as well as converge, as I discuss throughout Chapters Five, Six and Seven.

Although ostensibly, stories based on the quest plot appear to be very different, they are all underpinned by the central character seeking a goal of some kind. This can be treasure or, appositely for my research in Spain, the goal is often a new home, embodying ‘a great renewal of life’ (Booker 2004 p83). For the women I interviewed in Spain, the quest was for a new life and the recovery of something that had been lost (Delanty 2003), and I argue in Chapters Five, Six and Seven that what has been lost is community.

Significantly, a ‘call’ - ‘A note of the most urgent compulsion’ (Booker 2004 p. 70) – precipitates the quest which has resonance for my research participants in terms of their being disillusioned with Britain and feeling that it had failed them in some way. This is discussed in Chapter Five. Examples of the call in quest stories include Fiver in Watership Down having a premonition that something bad is about to happen and Christian in Pilgrims Progress having a nightmare vision of the future (Booker 2004).

The quest begins with the central character feeling an intense compulsion to leave. I examine the reasons why women chose to leave the UK for Spain in terms of what they said and also their use of language and linguistic devices in Chapter Five. The call is something that all the women’s narratives shared, although there is divergence regarding other elements. For example, a feature of the quest includes the central character’s companions who accompany her on the ‘journey’. In Chapter Six I discuss how women talk differently about networks in their narratives depending whether or not they wished to remain in Spain. Further, in order to fulfil the life renewing goal, the central character must first overcome certain difficulties or obstacles and again these are presented differently in women’s narratives depending on their future intentions.

I apply the quest plot typology to those women who wished to remain in

Spain. For those that wanted to return to the UK, the plot voyage and return is useful; like the quest, this plot is also based on a journey and examples of this include Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Wizard of Oz (Booker 2004). In voyage and return, the central character travels away from of their surroundings to a world which is remote and far away from their home. At first, this strangeness is interesting and distracting, but eventually the protagonist wants to return to what is familiar, that is, home:

‘The essence of this plot is its central figure’s confrontation with the unknown, that which seems abnormal precisely because it is in such contrast to and so cut off from the familiar world he or she inhabits’ (Booker 2004 p. 92).

Both typologies are useful for my work as I am interested in how ‘home’ is constructed through women’s narratives of community. Although Booker (2004) suggests that the circumstances at the start of the quest and voyage and return differ in that the latter involves a less purposeful start to the journey, I apply the quest to all of the women’s narratives and discuss the voyage and return typology in relation to a shift in plot as indicated above. The main difference between the quest and voyage and return plots therefore, is where the central character ultimately wants to be, in the original home or the new one.

Following Ginsburg’s (1989a) analytical tradition, and by using the plots of the ‘quest’ and ‘voyage and return’ I look at how the women living in Spain

construct different positions from their experiences of community in Spain. I apply a comparison of plot lines across narrative accounts and I focus on the similarities and differences in the discursive strategies employed by the women. I analyse the narratives in terms of plot in the findings chapters and discuss the practicalities of doing this in the following chapter.

To summarise, I examine plot in women’s narratives because emplotment (Ricouer 1984) creates some order within the narrative and focussing on different plot types and plot shifts allows meaning to both be imposed on the

narratives and illuminated through them. Analysing plot enables

generalisations to be made within and across narratives of community and it is particularly useful to examine typologies of the quest and voyage and return in relation to constructing community and migration to Spain as I discuss below. As previously highlighted, I also examine some of the linguistic devices and choices in addition to the substantive elements of women’s narratives. The plot can be understood as the structure imposed on the narrative by the women and by the analyst. I consider next how narrative and time can be used to understand women’s narratives of community in Spain.