DIEGESIS

The Shape of Things to Come. An Interview with Lindsay Holmgren

2024-01-29T23:05:01+00:00

In this “Shape of Things to Come”-interview, Lindsay Holmgren highlights the role of narrative in generating and imparting knowledge. She speaks about a long-term interdisciplinary research project which investigates how young adults make sense of global challenges like climate change, war, or global pandemics through narrative. How, she asks, can narratives uncover the ways in which such experiences influence the life of this generation of young people?

Migration and Narrative Ecologies. Public and Media Discourse in the EU

2024-01-29T22:11:18+00:00

This survey article paves the way for a new exchange between migration studies in the social sciences and narrative research on migration in the humanities by introducing the concept of a narrative ecology of migration. Taking our cue from previous research on cultural, media, and narrative ecologies, we argue that narratives on migration travel through different cultural and discursive contexts where they encounter other stories which either sustain or challenge their significance. Our argument unfolds in two steps: After providing a survey of previous research on narrative ecologies, which we see as a subset of media ecologies, we describe the levels of the narrative ecology of migration by discussing the ways in which different narratives on migration, as well as stories of migration, interact with each other on local, national, and European scales.

Narrative, Scale, and Two Refugee Crises in Comparison in Italian Media

2024-01-29T22:26:19+00:00

Bringing together narrative theory, migration studies, and contemporary discussions in the environmental humanities, this article considers the significance of the concept of scale for media narratives on migration. The starting point is that migration is a multiscalar phenomenon that ranges from migrants’ personal experience to the global factors (such as poverty and climate change) that shape migration on a planetary scale. Media narratives are often unable to bring together those scales, privileging the scale of regional or national debates at the expense of migrants’ experience or global phenomena. We demonstrate that idea through the qualitative analysis of migration coverage in the Italian media, focusing on two newspapers (Corriere della sera and Il Giornale) and two periods in 2015 and 2022. We thus compare what is frequently described as the refugee “crisis” of 2015 and the wave of migration created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The analysis shows that, in both newspapers, migration coverage in 2015 was marked by a disconnect between local and global events, whereas in 2022 the event structure of the war afforded closer integration between scales. This suggests that, even when no simple causal linked can be established between the causes of migration and its effects, more efforts are needed to project a complex, nuanced image of migration in media storytelling.

Narratives of Crisis vs. Narratives of Solidarity. Analyzing Discursive Shifts in Austrian Media Coverage of Refugee Movements from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

2024-01-29T22:32:43+00:00

When unprecedently large numbers of refugees from Middle Eastern countries fled to Europe in the years 2015 and 2016, the media depicted these events as a moment of crisis that put European cohesion to the test. Ever since the beginning of the so-called refugee crisis, framing migration as a problem that requires solving had been a common practice in European media. Yet media coverage of migration drastically changed in February 2022: After Russia had invaded Ukraine, causing millions of Ukrainians to flee their home country, the persistent crisis narrative eventually made way for a narrative of solidarity. This working paper traces the reasons and outcomes of this discursive shift by examining, from the perspective of interdisciplinary narrative research, how migration was framed and presented in journalistic interviews published in Austrian newspapers, including tabloids and broadsheets, in September 2015 and March 2022. The paper’s combination of methods from the social sciences and the humanities offers an analysis of not only the migration frames and the speakers’ positioning that become manifest in the interview sample (qualitative content analysis), but also the narrative strategies and stylistic devices that are used in the migration narratives emerging from these texts (discourse analysis and narrative analysis). The particular utility of this innovative interdisciplinary multi-method approach, the paper argues, is a comprehensive discussion of migration narrative in media that also addresses frequent shortcomings of disciplinary analysis.

Narrating Diaspora. The African Diaspora as a Counter-Narrative

2024-01-29T22:44:48+00:00

This paper’s central goal is to examine the role that narratives, collective or otherwise, play in the construction of diaspora as an epistemic formation. In particular, we are interested in exploring the interplay between dominant narratives on diaspora and competing counter-narratives of diaspora. In order to do this, we resort to the concept of “imagined communities” by Benedict Anderson, arguing that the sense of a communion among members of communities is buttressed in collective narratives based on shared knowledge, values, norms, and culture. Furthermore, the paper draws on a typology developed by Carolin Gebauer and Roy Sommer which differentiates between narratives on and stories of migration. Adopting this distinction, we argue that narratives on diaspora provide a primarily etic (i.e., outsider) perspective on diasporic formations, as they emphasize group cohesion and a sense of shared group consciousness that unites members of diasporic communities. Such narratives are often found in academic scholarship and in public discourses about diaspora. By contrast, narratives of diaspora refer to discourses that provide an emic (i.e., insider) perspective, acknowledging the diversity and historicity of diasporic formations and their roles as epistemic communities. This emic perspective foregrounds historical ‘moments’ that have led to the development of the African diaspora in Germany, which articulates counter-narratives to various discourses, especially anti-Black racism.

German Welcome Culture Then and Now. How Crisis Narration Can Foster (Contested) Solidarity with Refugees

2024-02-15T12:03:53+00:00

The initial response of German civil society to the so-called European refugee crisis in 2015/2016 is often framed as a welcome culture. How does this narrative of solidarity relate to the narrative of crisis which dominated European migration policy at the time, giving rise to right-wing populism in several member states of the European Union? And how does it differ from the narrative of solidarity we have been recently witnessing in the wake of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which has caused new refugee movements toward Europe? This article sets out to investigate the dynamics of narratives of public solidarity with refugees in Germany by juxtaposing what is now often called the “long summer of migration” with representations of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Drawing on insights from crisis research and interdisciplinary narrative research, I will first argue that framing of historical conditions as crisis situations is based on the interplay of retrospective and prospective worldmaking – a key concept in the philosophy of mind and cognitive narrative theory – which sets in motion a complex (counter-) narrative dynamics. I will then proceed to investigate how such dynamics played out in the periods under investigation: Public debates of the refugee ‘crisis’ of 2015/2016, I will show, produced diverging counter-narratives (i.e., pro-migration vs. anti-refugee narratives) that competed for discursive hegemony, whereas representations of the war in Ukraine generated a widely shared narrative of solidarity with refugees.

Hungary’s ‘Rebalanced’ Media Ecology. Controlling the Narratives on Migration, Gender, and Europe

2024-01-29T22:37:19+00:00

Hungary has the most restrictive migration policy in the European Union, and its discriminatory LGBT law and anti-European rhetoric keep alienating more liberal member states. Starting with a survey of Hungary’s ‘rebalanced’ media landscape, this essay explores the narrative dynamics of Viktor Orbán’s nationalist rhetoric. We focus on the government’s manipulative ‘national consultation’ strategy and billboard campaigns to show how new communication channels are established which allow the government to address its national audience directly, making it largely independent from both legacy media and social media. We further argue that the “immigration and terrorism” narrative of 2015 is designed to fuel ontological insecurity and, like the toxic narratives on gender and Brussels initiated by Orbán, serves a dual purpose: it fosters the centripetal dynamics of Hungary’s nationalist narrative while fueling the centrifugal dynamics of an anti-liberal vision of Europe.

Disruptive Narratives. A New Research Paradigm

2024-01-29T22:56:19+00:00

In this article, we seek to delineate a new research program that involves the analysis of disruptive narratives. The term covers conspiracy narratives, stories spread in the context of disinformation campaigns, and populist discourse, but also radical challenges to our life styles. Some of these stories propose largely invented (or fictive) realities, while others are still clearly fact-based. What all disruptive narratives have in common is their potential to shock: they try to present radically alternative events and thus urge their recipients to challenge established authorities. For us ‘disruption’ is a descriptive and thus ethically neutral term that merely signals an interest in disturbing a given political order. Such stories deserve greater attention because they play an ever more important role in the public spheres in Western countries such as Britain, Germany, or the US. We will thus address questions such as: How are these narratives structured? What about the interplay between the content and the form? What are these stories trying to achieve? What about their ideological ramifications or political consequences? Who spreads them? Who feels attracted by them?

About this Issue

2024-02-15T08:55:20+00:00

This special issue of DIEGESIS, edited by Marco Caracciolo, Carolin Gebauer, and Roy Sommer, presents some of the findings of the collaborative research project “Crises as OPPORTUNITIES: Towards a Level Telling Field on Migration and a New Narrative of Successful Integration,” funded by the European Union (Horizon 2020). The six contributions investigate how politicians, the news media, and diasporic communities use narratives to frame migration policies, influence public opinion, and shape collective identities. It also demonstrates how narrative theory, by developing concepts like narrative dynamics, crisis narration, frames and metaphors, scaling, and collective narrative, can provide new critical perspectives on migration. The special issue thus bridges the gap between the analysis of narratives by quantitative media studies in the social sciences and theoretically oriented narrative scholarship in the humanities.

By relating their inquiry to the novel concept of a narrative ecology of migration in an introductory survey article, the guest editors show how narrative theory can contribute to migration studies. Through detailed analyses of migration discourses in four European countries (Germany, Austria, Italy, and Hungary), the articles by Simona Adinolfi, Birgit Bahtić-Kunrath, Marco Caracciolo, Ida Fábián, Carolin Gebauer, and Roy Sommer illustrate the flexibility of a narrative approach, emphasizing the diversity of European migration debates. Rounding off this special issue is a case study of the African diaspora in Germany, understood as a narrative community by M. Moustapha Diallo and Mariam Muwanga.

In addition, this issue of DIEGESIS includes a featured article by Jan Alber, Thomas Niehr, and Hans-Jörg Sigwart, which introduces a new research paradigm: “disruptive narratives” are characterized by a high potential to shock audiences, presenting radically alternative realities that seek to disturb an established political order.

In the “Shape of Things to Come” section, our interview with Lindsay Holmgren highlights the role of narrative in generating and imparting knowledge. Holmgren speaks about a long-term interdisciplinary research project which investigates how young adults make sense of global challenges like climate change, war, or global pandemics through narrative. How, she asks, can narratives uncover the ways in which such experiences influence the life of this generation?

Three book reviews complete this winter issue of DIEGESIS. Christian Benesch discusses Erzählen ohne Worte. Eine Erkundung by Michael Niehaus (Hagen University Press and Georg Olms Verlag 2022); Jon Hegglund reviews Marie-Laure Ryan’s A New Anatomy of Storyworlds. What Is, What If, As If (The Ohio State University Press, 2022), and Sarah J. Link introduces our readers to Digital Fiction and the Unnatural. Transmedial Narrative Theory, Method, and Analysis, co-authored by Astrid Ensslin and Alice Bell (The Ohio State University Press, 2021).

We wish you all an interesting and inspiring read!

Diskursive Wortlosigkeit. Michael Niehaus erkundet die spezifischen Voraussetzungen und Möglichkeiten eines Erzählens ohne Worte in verschiedenen Medien

2024-02-07T22:23:08+00:00

Rezension zu: Michael Niehaus. Erzählen ohne Worte. Eine Erkundung. Hagen: Hagen UP/ Georg
Olms Verlag 2022 (= Schriften zur Literatur- und Medienwissenschaft, Bd.5),
439 S. EUR 39,80. ISBN 9783487162003

The Aesthetics of Narrative Immersion. Marie-Laure Ryan’s New Anatomy of Storyworlds

2024-02-07T22:32:52+00:00

Review of: Marie-Laure Ryan. A New Anatomy of Storyworlds: What Is, What If, As If. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2022. 248 pp. USD 89.95. ISBN 978-0-8142-1508-1

A Toolkit for Impossibilities. Astrid Ensslin and Alice Bell’s Digital Fiction and the Unnatural

2024-02-07T22:16:19+00:00

Review of: Astrid Ensslin and Alice Bell. Digital Fiction and the Unnatural. Transmedial Narrative Theory, Method, and Analysis. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2021. (= Theory and Interpretation of Narrative) 218 pp. USD 79.95. ISBN: 978-0-8142-1456-5