Endings, secrets, and silences: overreading in narrative inquiry.
Qualitative researchers seek to understand the words of the people they interview and may use narrative inquiry to find meaning in the stories told by research participants. Narrative inquiry entails "overreading," a sensitivity to unspoken or indirect statement, which is central to interpretation. Some of the tools of the literary overreader are applied to two research interviews, particularly as they direct readers to attend to inconsistencies, endings, repetitions, and silence. Because overreading is also intrusive, we conclude with some considerations about how far the overreader of the research may legitimately go.
Poirier
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University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine 60612-7309, USA.
Ayres
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L
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D015982:Bias; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D012650:Self Disclosure