Narrative and the experience of death are at the center of this new volume by Labov, which focuses on ways in which people who have been close to death—either their own or their loved ones’—recount such encounters. I am sure that readers who are familiar with Labov's work on narrative will be curious about the developments in his thinking about this genre. Indeed, Labov's (Reference Labov, Waletzky and Helm1967) foundational article with Waletzky has been among the most important points of reference for narrative scholars in linguistics for the last forty-five years. For this reason, I started the book with the trepidation that any reader experiences when approaching the latest novel by a favorite author. My anticipation was not frustrated since I have indeed found some interesting developments in Labov's theorizations about narrative, even though, as I explain later, no revolution has taken place.
The volume is divided into three main parts: Chapters 1 and 2 lay out the theoretical foundations for the analyses developed in the following chapters; chapters 3 to 15 examine different kinds of narratives, while chapter 16 offers some concluding thoughts. The analysis chapters can be grouped according to the types of narratives studied. Chapters 3 through 6 deal with narratives of personal experience, chapters 6 through 11 present different kinds of ‘epic’ narratives, and chapters 12 to 15 focus on historical narratives.
I start with a discussion of the theoretical foundations laid out in chapters 1 and 2. Even though Labov recognizes the existence of different kinds of narratives and the need to take into account the interactional context in which they take place, he still regards canonical, monologic narratives of personal experience focused on big, life-changing events as the most basic for the study of the genre and also as the most prototypical. In chapter 1 he stresses once again the importance of narratives told in interview for the study of language variation and states that the big stories that emerge therein ‘are not the creation of the interview format’ (p. 10) but rather are representative of the genre since they can be found in conversation and in many other contexts.
While canonical stories are still the primary data for Labov's analyses, the book reveals a shift in his theoretical and methodological focus. Labov appears less interested in narrative structure per se and more intrigued by the way storytelling relates to memory and the effects of big stories on listeners and readers. The structural focus was evident in the definition of narrative found in Labov & Waletzky, where narrative was described as ‘a technique of constructing narrative units which match the temporal sequence of that experience’ (Reference Labov, Waletzky and Helm1967:13). The definition proposed in the present volume more generically depicts a story as ‘one way of recounting a particular series of events that actually happened’ (p. 17). It is the way in which such events are connected to each other by a narrator that now occupies Labov. Indeed, in chapter 2, he concentrates on the process of narrative ‘reconstruction’ (replacing his earlier term ‘preconstruction’) that, in his view, precedes narrative construction, and that involves an answer to the question: ‘Where shall I begin?’ According to Labov, the teller locates the most reportable (hence the most significant) event in a story and works backwards to reconstruct the chain of events that caused it, usually following a temporal succession. Within this process, orientation—that is, the provision of details about characters, time, and place—takes up much greater importance than in his early model, as it is seen as setting the stage for the narrative chain of causality proposed by the teller to get to the most reportable event. Labov also slightly modifies the way he looks at evaluation: while evaluation was described in his earlier model (Labov Reference Labov and Labov1972) as the means through which the teller conveys her take on the meaning of the story, here the author problematizes the idea of a single point of view being presented. He talks instead—very much echoing Goffman's (Reference Goffman and Goffman1981) distinction between animator, author, principal, and figure—about different selves that may be speaking/acting in the narrative: the self as author, the self as actor, the self as seen by others, the self as generalized other, and finally the self in whose interest the narrative is told. Narrative reconstruction has to do with the latter, in that it is aimed at presenting a particular version of events and one which ultimately reflects the teller's interests.
The last element of novelty in Labov's approach is his greater focus on the ability of skilled narrators to engross, involve, and move their audiences by conveying their experiences with quintessential human themes such as life, death, and sex. This new angle is apparent in Labov's statement that ‘the primary data on which this book is based are not the narratives themselves, but their effect on listeners when they are retold’ (p. 6).
Data for the book are twenty narratives recorded in interview by Labov or his students starting in the 1970s, mostly as part of sociolinguistic investigations. A few narratives come from published sources.
Chapter 3 concentrates on narratives that depict an escalation of violence. Here we find two stories, ‘Jacob Schissel's Story’ and the ‘Norwegian Sailor’, that have been at the center of Labov's interest for decades, as he himself notes. These narratives are well suited for his analysis of narrative reconstruction as they present sudden and quite unexplained outbursts of violence of which the protagonists were victims. Labov reconstructs the chain of events as presented by the tellers and demonstrates, amongst other things, the existence of gaps that, once filled, can provide clues to the reasons for apparently inexplicable violent reactions.
Chapter 4 analyzes narratives that relate an encounter with sudden death. These stories include narratives told in interview, as well as one traditional folk tale collected by Dell Hymes. The analysis again centers on narrative reconstruction and on how the process of selection that accompanies it often responds to the narrator's need to assign blame and praise. Labov argues that successful narratives are stories in which moral stance is clear as the teller has evaluated and internalized the facts and has been able to decide who is to blame or to praise. In other words, well formed narratives are those that allow narrators to ‘transform reality in the interest of the self’ (p. 83). It is therefore not surprising that Labov appears to struggle with narratives, also presented in this chapter, that do not follow these principles. One of them demonstrates, in my view, some of the limitations of a model that places too much emphasis on coherence and logical development. In this story, a woman whose husband died suddenly, recounts how unable she was to recognize the proximity of his death, even after she had been lying in bed with him. Labov first defines the narrative as not fully coherent and well formed, and then tries to analyze it as a story in which the narrator is attempting to justify her lack of judgment. But in my own reading this is in fact a very moving and effective narrative, in which the teller has no blame to assign, does not make a strong attempt at defending her behavior, but rather stresses the shock of the experience precisely because of its unexpectedness.
Chapter 5 deals with narratives of premonition about death. Labov notes how credibility is particularly at stake in these kinds of narratives as some audiences may be predisposed not to believe in the events told. However, he also describes the suspension of disbelief that takes place when the stories are recounted.
Chapters 6 to 9 present a series of analyses of ‘epic’ stories. ‘Epic stories’ are made up of multiple episodes that cover large periods of time. Their development relates to an initial conflict that ends up with a resolution. At the same time, they present protagonists who struggle with mighty obstacles and overcome all kinds of difficulties in crucial moments of their life. The narratives in this chapter deal with the death of children, racial violence, and extreme need in the face of misfortune and they all present protagonists that, as Labov shows, manage to strongly establish themselves as courageous and highly moral figures.
Chapter 10 examines narratives embedded in an extended conversation between two older men in a rural area of Utah, Cache County. These narratives ‘give us a panorama of several decades of small-town conflicts and long-held resentment’ (p. 160). Labov analyzes each single episode looking at the most reportable event and underscores the role of telling strategies such as negation or reported speech in the construction of moral stance.
Chapter 11 focuses on the style of a single narrator, Donald Wise, a nineteen-year-old professional thief, to demonstrate the links between traditional epic narratives and African American modern narrative genres.
In the last part of the volume, Labov deals with historical narratives that include writings by well-known historians such as Lord Macaulay or S. T. Bindoff about famous events in the history of the UK, and a biblical narrative by an anonymous historian about Absalom's death. Labov examines the conflict between a style of telling that strives to present objective concatenations of facts and a style that appears to use the very same techniques analyzed in everyday narrative: the unfolding of events as experienced by the teller. The analysis once again demonstrates the power of the narrative mode.
Labov concludes with the following exhortation to the reader: ‘It is my hope that you will use this study not only as a way of understanding narrative, but as a means of widening and deepening your acquaintance with the human race, and furthermore that you will admire these people as much as I do’ (p. 229).
This volume represents an important text for academics and students interested in narrative analysis, but also an interesting read for a nonspecialist audience. Indeed, the narratives that Labov presents are fascinating and his analyses remind us of the power of narrative in everyday life.
