Being Fred: big stories, small stories and the accomplishment of a positive ageing identity

Abstract

This article is informed by recent trends in narrative research that focus on the meaning-making actions of those involved in describing the life course. Drawing upon data generated during a series of interactive interviews with a 70-year-old physically active man named Fred, his story is presented to illustrate a strategic model of narrative activity. In particular, using the concepts of 'big stories' and 'small stories' as an analytical framework, we trace Fred's use of two specific identities; being fit and healthy, and being leisurely to analyse the ways that he accomplishes an ontological narrative where the plot line reads; 'Life is what you make it'. The ways in which this narrative enables Fred to perform a narrative of positive self-ageing in his everyday life is illustrated. Finally, the analytical possibilities of being attentive to both big and small stories in narrative analysis are discussed.

Narrative analysis in aging studies: A typology for consideration

“…In addition, various scholars (e.g. Becker, 1997;Laz, 2003;Phoenix & Sparkes, 2006a, 2009Tulle, 2007) suggest that whilst the body as personal and social is never knowable in unmediated ways, narratives are important because bodily experience is deeply embedded in narrative. Narratives are projected from, and inscribed into the body, and these stories can give us insights into our lived aging bodies and cultures that inscribe our bodies with its meanings of age.…”

The Handbook of Narrative Analysis

“…For example, Phoenix and Sparkes (2009) showed, in the case of Fred, a healthy 70-year-old man, that his small stories within the context of an interview presented him as a healthy and physically active man, while the master narratives of aging are about physical decline. As in other studies of small stories, Fred was found to occasion countercanonical selves through small stories, snapshots of himself that go against what may be expected of his normative categorization as an "older" man.…”

An internet of old things as an augmented memory system

“…It has been proposed that 'humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives' [20, p. 2]. Hence, narrative plays a key role in the process of human meaning-making and in the structuring of life experiences [21,22]. Van Dijck [11] argues that only when our experiences are transformed into stories do we gain agency of our past.…”