Narratives and storytelling processes in the analysis of political discourse

This chapter reviews work that studies the intersections between politics and storytelling. It argues that the analysis of stories and storytelling strategies is one of the tools that analysts have at their disposal to understand politics and political discourse and explain the interest of many discourse researchers for this connection. It shows that narrative is ubiquitous in political environments and in everyday struggles at various levels: as a frame for identities and for the interpretation of events, and as a type of discourse allowing politicians and people to convey their particular views about social issues. As demonstrated in the chapter, scholars investigate narratives from both macro perspectives, as schematic structures and templates underlying political discourses and campaigns, or from a micro perspective exploring different genres of stories and how they are used in different communicative environments. While work on macro narratives is well established within studies of political discourse, more research is needed on specific narrative genres and on ways in which narratives are evolving in our ever-changing political landscape.