Abstract
Ken Plummer’s Narrative Power explores the question: “How does narrative shape power and how does power shape narrative?” (p. x). According to Plummer, narratives have the ability to act (narrative action) and work for social change. Drawing on these concepts, he particularly focuses on tales of suffering to illustrate their potentials for action and social change in the contemporary moment, which is marked by multifarious new forms of narrative production and dissemination via new technologies. The book is organized by Chapters and Acts and introduced by a Prologue and an Overture, which present key ideas and concepts. This organization itself is representative of some central characteristics of narratives as they are presented in the book, for example, the idea that narratives are never finished and sometimes overlap and disrupt each other is embodied in the narrative style of the book.
Framing this structure, the Overture consists of six brief stories that guide overarching questions about narrative power and suffering across the book. The stories include the narrative of Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai, specifically illustrating the role of her widely known story with respect to narrative power. Narrative power, then, is conceptualized as her capacity to create her own counternarrative, the reclamation of her power to act after being attacked by the Taliban but also the danger of her narrative being co-opted by international media, making her story both one of the dominant narratives about the experiences of Muslim girls and a mediated story about resistance and suffering (p. 8). Plummer also uses Pierre Bourdieu’s Weight of the World, the fictional memoir, Animal’s People, tweets from the revolution at Tahir Square and from Luz Arce and the Chilean Truth Commission, and finally, 9/11 and New York City to demonstrate the interrelationship of power and narrative. Each story illustrates the book’s key concepts of narrative power, stories of human suffering, and the new modalities through which stories are created and disseminated. Chapters 2 and 3 are introduced by a short poem (Act 1) and delve more deeply into a definition of narrative power as a concept and show the ways in which human values are reflected in narratives.
Act 2 introduces Chapters 4–8 that present contemporary examples of narratives that highlight inequality and domination, to explore “how throughout history, people have come to be dominated, and how oppressed people come to re-imagine their existence” (p. 65). Chapter 5 returns to the concept of narrative power and presents how digital narratives produce various (new) types of narrative power. Here, Plummer traces media used to disseminate stories throughout history, arriving at today’s digital formats, to illustrate the point that these various forms of media have impacted how narratives are told, and to demonstrate the kinds of power they hold. Finally, Act 3 introduces Chapter 9 that focuses on narrative hope, the use of narratives for the betterment of mankind. Plummer encourages readers to listen to and engage with narratives that are different from their own in the pursuit of social change.
Conceptually, Narrative Power covers a lot of ground. Each chapter presents multiple narrative-based concepts and briefly discusses them, moving, at times quite swiftly, from concept to concept and from idea to idea. In multiple places, the book presents dilemmas and questions related to narratives and how they are explored. Because of this conceptual strength, the book presents a good resource for scholars who seek an overview of the various dimensions of power related to narrative research and storytelling. For practitioners and students of social work, the book may be entry point into the world of narrative research, particularly as we consider the ways narratives are used to disrupt, challenge, or maintain the societal status quo.
