AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

184 TARA TABASSI
as a teller of other human beings’ stories, what does it mean when a story
is taken, printed and distributed far from its source? In Orientalism, Said
explains: “the Orientalist’s presence is enabled by the Orient’s effective
absence” (1978:208). Precisely because the source of a representation is
not the person/group/country represented, the representer can enable a
new kind of essentializing discourse. Does this affect the ‘comfortable
sense of being a good, socially proper and stable person’? (Johnstone
2001:640-1) Who is a good person and who is not? Where is the humanity
of the person whose story it ‘is’ and more critically, what value is
given to the people/institutions who make profit from taking that story?
To whom is a story told, by whom, and for what purpose?
Methodology
Framed by the above questions, Narrative Analysis will be used, structured
by five of Labov’s personal experience narrative (PEN) clauses: (1)
Abstract; (2) Orientation; (3) Complicating Action; (4) Result/Resolution;
and (5) Coda. Johnstone defines ‘narratives’ as talk about past
events and ‘story’ as narrative with a point (2001:636-9). NatGeo’s stories
are arguably presented as ‘first-hand’ data and interpreted as reality.
Johnstone’s definition becomes meaningful if NatGeo is interpreted as a
creator of discourse with specific agendas, following Said’s analysis that
every representation is political and therefore specific agendas (1978:11).
Roe’s work applies fairytale structure and questions ‘“real” world versus
fiction’ in the context of development literature, arguing that ‘storification’
occurs due to demand for writing that ‘holds together’ without fragmentation,
developed by a cast: Villain, Hero, Victim, Magical Object,
Magic Helper, Obstacles, and Journey (1989:1-2). Analyzing an article as
a whole, seamless narrative, presenting heroes and demons, illuminates
the structures necessary for readers to believingly follow discourse.
Text will be analyzed with special attention to metaphor, underlying
assumptions and ‘constructed dialogues’ created for characters by the
narrator (Johnstone 2001:640). Overall narrative analysis will be complemented
by rudimentary visual analysis of related images in order to
understand the story’s function.