Translator: Ghadir Younes Reviewer: Maria Pericleous
My name is Marina, I work here at Kingston University,
in the Department of Linguistics and Languages
so I am very interested in Language.
My research, teaching, and publication interests
are in narratives and stories, which is pretty handy.
Today we’ve heard some amazing and inspirational stories.
I am interested in stories because I am interested in the way
that people construct their experiences
the way that people form their experiences
into a narrative structure
with a coherent beginning, middle, and end.
I am interested in the way that
we create a sense of self through stories,
and I am interested, particularly, in trauma narratives
and I will be talking about 9/11 and 7/7 a little bit later.
Trauma narratives are extraordinary events
so you can imagine people who go through these events
how they try to make sense of what has happened.
So, it’s generally accepted that
sharing stories is a universal activity.
And as I said, it helps us to encode things like moral and ethical dilemmas,
it gives us a sense of ourselves in the world around us.
Storytelling pervades every area of our lives.
The cognitive psychologist, Jerome Bruner,
actually talks about us having a capacity,
a propensity, to form stories.
He talks about it as being a push,
we have this kind of innate ability to do this.
So let us have a look at some of the ways, some of the platforms, the mediums,
in which we find stories.
So we have the traditional face-to-face storytelling.
But then of course we have the literary form of storytelling.
Down there, with the fairy tales, that perhaps presents or represents
the most prototypical form of storytelling,
the “Once upon a time,” leading to a happy ending.
Of course we have storytelling in arts, and we recognize Picasso’s Guernica.
What about drama?
And drama that is adapted to the stage.
Music, opera, ballet,
song,
and of course we also have media narratives
the narratives that we see in print news,
the narratives that we even see in advertising.
And who can forget the London riots?
Who can forget how we felt at the time,
I think we all have our own stories.
And of course some of those stories
I mentioned at the beginning of this series of slides,
that traditionally we have the face to face storytelling,
but of course we also have social media.
And what is really interesting is to think about how small something can be
to be called a narrative.
So what makes a good story?
-I will keep using this term “narratives,”
I am going to use the terms “narrative” and “story” interchangeably.
Narrative theorists who say that a minimum narrative
consists of two events, side by side.
A sequence.
Something happened, and then something else happened.
That is a bit dull, it is not very interesting.
We want to be able to evaluate these stories
usually this link, this transformation, is causal.
The literary critic
and Philosopher Narratologist, Tzvetan Todorov
offered a model with narrative.
It is quite an interesting one, and it is in five stages.
So you begin at the beginning with the state of normality,
everything is in a state of equilibrium.
But then there is a disruption to this state of equilibrium,
and that causes disequilibrium.
There is a recognition to this disruption, and then an attempt
to repair the disruption.
But what happens is that there is a restoration of equilibrium,
so you get a new state of normal,
however, it is not quite the same as it was before.
Things have changed for ever.
But you can see that there is a transformation process.
What makes stories compelling is the fact that there is some kind of high point,
a crisis, and chaos.
That is central to a good story.
I am going to give you some examples on the power of stories
I am going to look at global collective and personal narratives.
July the 7th, 2005,
London’s 7/7 terrorist bombings.
I am a Londoner, and for me this was a huge event.
I want to tell you about Martine Wright,
you may know the name.
So London 7/7, a series of coordinated bomb attacks,
on three underground stations: just outside Liverpool Street station,
Edgware Road, and Russell Square.
There was also a double-decker bus that exploded in Tavistock Square,
in Central London.
52 people were killed, (also) the 4 bombers,
and many hundreds of people injured.
One person who was travelling on the Circle line that morning
was Martine Wright.
And when I interviewed Martine,
she told me she wasn’t meant to be on the train that morning.
She woke up late.
She was partying the night before, and she woke up late.
And her whole life changed as a result.
Martine, unfortunately, was in the same carriage as the bomber,
and sustained horrific injuries; she lost both her legs.
But what is truly remarkable, is that she did not give up.
She trained to be an athlete.
And in 2012,
she was selected to represent Great Britain
in the Women’s Sitting Volleyball sport.
And in 2016, she was appointed a member of the British Empire
for her services to sport.
It is truly remarkable what we are talking about, empowerment,
and overcoming, which is the theme of today’s talks.
I interviewed Martine because I was looking at trauma narratives,
and the way that we try to make sense of these extraordinary events
and she told me,
“I do think that I am lucky.
I am unlucky that I walked onto that train that morning,
but so, so lucky to have survived.
I am doing things now that I never dreamt possible.”
You can imagine, talking to somebody so inspiring.
But let me also tell you another story.
I extended my research on trauma narratives and London 7/7 bombings
and I went to New York, to Manhattan.
I wanted to extend my research
because I have found some interesting insights, and I thought,
is that what some people do? Is that what everybody does?
I know, I will speak to some other people.
I went to New York.
Most of the people I’ve interviewed have been able to tell me their stories.
Sometimes people are not around to tell their story
and somebody else has to tell it for them.
Let me tell you about Todd Ouida,
or actually, let me tell you what Herb, his father,
told me about his son Todd.
When I asked him to tell me what happened on that day,
it was important for Herb to go back to when Todd was a child.
Todd suffered childhood anxiety, and as a result, couldn’t go to school.
He was very anxious.
With the love and support of his parents, his family, and with medical help
he was able to overcome this problem.
He was able to finish his studies, go on to University of Michigan,
and he got a fantastic job in financial services
with Cantor Fitzgerald
in the World Trade Center.
Herb also worked in the World Trade Center
so they both worked in the North Tower.
And he told me that every day they would get the ferry across to Manhattan,
they would have lunch together.
When flight eleven struck the North Tower
it struck the floors 93 to 101.
Herb, the father, was on the 77th floor, and he managed to escape.
And he told me that he waited at the bottom, he waited for his son,
his son was 25, he is fit, he is young.
Todd was on the 105th floor, he was trapped,
and he didn’t survive.
Herb then told me why he wanted to tell Todd’s story,
“And I never know, I never know, how I’m going to be when I tell the story,
but it doesn’t matter, I have to tell the story.
Telling the story is therapeutic, it’s important.
There was a Todd Ouida,
he walked this Earth.”
That final line for me said everything,
and in fact, when I put a request out
for people’s stories on the 9/11 list,
I was overwhelmed with the amount of people who wanted to be interviewed,
to tell me their story.
That’s why.
Herb and his wife Andrea set up a children’s foundation
to help other children with childhood anxiety: My Buddy Todd.
And to date, have raised over a million and a half dollars,
which is extraordinary.
I feel so honored to have met these people
and to have them share their story with me
and I have been able to share their story.
I am also an accredited life coach, as well as an academic,
and storytelling is very much central to that process.
However, instead of going back to the past
life coaching is about wanting to change your future story.
So when clients come to see me it’s because they want to make a change
and it’s about transforming their lives.
One of the ways you can do this is to narrativize your experiences,
where you are now
and to set goals, and to try and move on, to try and achieve those goals.
So telling stories is a really powerful activity,
we do it to get a sense of ourselves; to position ourselves in the world
to be able to share our experiences, because of what they encode.
So we are constantly revising our life stories as part of this process,
it’s all a process.
And today we’ve heard some incredible stories.
And as I look out here,
look at you, looking at me, telling my story,
because I’m telling you about my research,
and in my research I’m telling you other people’s stories,
I wonder…
What is your story?
(Applause)
My name is Marina, I work here at Kingston University,
in the Department of Linguistics and Languages
so I am very interested in Language.
My research, teaching, and publication interests
are in narratives and stories, which is pretty handy.
Today we’ve heard some amazing and inspirational stories.
I am interested in stories because I am interested in the way
that people construct their experiences
the way that people form their experiences
into a narrative structure
with a coherent beginning, middle, and end.
I am interested in the way that
we create a sense of self through stories,
and I am interested, particularly, in trauma narratives
and I will be talking about 9/11 and 7/7 a little bit later.
Trauma narratives are extraordinary events
so you can imagine people who go through these events
how they try to make sense of what has happened.
So, it’s generally accepted that
sharing stories is a universal activity.
And as I said, it helps us to encode things like moral and ethical dilemmas,
it gives us a sense of ourselves in the world around us.
Storytelling pervades every area of our lives.
The cognitive psychologist, Jerome Bruner,
actually talks about us having a capacity,
a propensity, to form stories.
He talks about it as being a push,
we have this kind of innate ability to do this.
So let us have a look at some of the ways, some of the platforms, the mediums,
in which we find stories.
So we have the traditional face-to-face storytelling.
But then of course we have the literary form of storytelling.
Down there, with the fairy tales, that perhaps presents or represents
the most prototypical form of storytelling,
the “Once upon a time,” leading to a happy ending.
Of course we have storytelling in arts, and we recognize Picasso’s Guernica.
What about drama?
And drama that is adapted to the stage.
Music, opera, ballet,
song,
and of course we also have media narratives
the narratives that we see in print news,
the narratives that we even see in advertising.
And who can forget the London riots?
Who can forget how we felt at the time,
I think we all have our own stories.
And of course some of those stories
I mentioned at the beginning of this series of slides,
that traditionally we have the face to face storytelling,
but of course we also have social media.
And what is really interesting is to think about how small something can be
to be called a narrative.
So what makes a good story?
-I will keep using this term “narratives,”
I am going to use the terms “narrative” and “story” interchangeably.
Narrative theorists who say that a minimum narrative
consists of two events, side by side.
A sequence.
Something happened, and then something else happened.
That is a bit dull, it is not very interesting.
We want to be able to evaluate these stories
usually this link, this transformation, is causal.
The literary critic
and Philosopher Narratologist, Tzvetan Todorov
offered a model with narrative.
It is quite an interesting one, and it is in five stages.
So you begin at the beginning with the state of normality,
everything is in a state of equilibrium.
But then there is a disruption to this state of equilibrium,
and that causes disequilibrium.
There is a recognition to this disruption, and then an attempt
to repair the disruption.
But what happens is that there is a restoration of equilibrium,
so you get a new state of normal,
however, it is not quite the same as it was before.
Things have changed for ever.
But you can see that there is a transformation process.
What makes stories compelling is the fact that there is some kind of high point,
a crisis, and chaos.
That is central to a good story.
I am going to give you some examples on the power of stories
I am going to look at global collective and personal narratives.
July the 7th, 2005,
London’s 7/7 terrorist bombings.
I am a Londoner, and for me this was a huge event.
I want to tell you about Martine Wright,
you may know the name.
So London 7/7, a series of coordinated bomb attacks,
on three underground stations: just outside Liverpool Street station,
Edgware Road, and Russell Square.
There was also a double-decker bus that exploded in Tavistock Square,
in Central London.
52 people were killed, (also) the 4 bombers,
and many hundreds of people injured.
One person who was travelling on the Circle line that morning
was Martine Wright.
And when I interviewed Martine,
she told me she wasn’t meant to be on the train that morning.
She woke up late.
She was partying the night before, and she woke up late.
And her whole life changed as a result.
Martine, unfortunately, was in the same carriage as the bomber,
and sustained horrific injuries; she lost both her legs.
But what is truly remarkable, is that she did not give up.
She trained to be an athlete.
And in 2012,
she was selected to represent Great Britain
in the Women’s Sitting Volleyball sport.
And in 2016, she was appointed a member of the British Empire
for her services to sport.
It is truly remarkable what we are talking about, empowerment,
and overcoming, which is the theme of today’s talks.
I interviewed Martine because I was looking at trauma narratives,
and the way that we try to make sense of these extraordinary events
and she told me,
“I do think that I am lucky.
I am unlucky that I walked onto that train that morning,
but so, so lucky to have survived.
I am doing things now that I never dreamt possible.”
You can imagine, talking to somebody so inspiring.
But let me also tell you another story.
I extended my research on trauma narratives and London 7/7 bombings
and I went to New York, to Manhattan.
I wanted to extend my research
because I have found some interesting insights, and I thought,
is that what some people do? Is that what everybody does?
I know, I will speak to some other people.
I went to New York.
Most of the people I’ve interviewed have been able to tell me their stories.
Sometimes people are not around to tell their story
and somebody else has to tell it for them.
Let me tell you about Todd Ouida,
or actually, let me tell you what Herb, his father,
told me about his son Todd.
When I asked him to tell me what happened on that day,
it was important for Herb to go back to when Todd was a child.
Todd suffered childhood anxiety, and as a result, couldn’t go to school.
He was very anxious.
With the love and support of his parents, his family, and with medical help
he was able to overcome this problem.
He was able to finish his studies, go on to University of Michigan,
and he got a fantastic job in financial services
with Cantor Fitzgerald
in the World Trade Center.
Herb also worked in the World Trade Center
so they both worked in the North Tower.
And he told me that every day they would get the ferry across to Manhattan,
they would have lunch together.
When flight eleven struck the North Tower
it struck the floors 93 to 101.
Herb, the father, was on the 77th floor, and he managed to escape.
And he told me that he waited at the bottom, he waited for his son,
his son was 25, he is fit, he is young.
Todd was on the 105th floor, he was trapped,
and he didn’t survive.
Herb then told me why he wanted to tell Todd’s story,
“And I never know, I never know, how I’m going to be when I tell the story,
but it doesn’t matter, I have to tell the story.
Telling the story is therapeutic, it’s important.
There was a Todd Ouida,
he walked this Earth.”
That final line for me said everything,
and in fact, when I put a request out
for people’s stories on the 9/11 list,
I was overwhelmed with the amount of people who wanted to be interviewed,
to tell me their story.
That’s why.
Herb and his wife Andrea set up a children’s foundation
to help other children with childhood anxiety: My Buddy Todd.
And to date, have raised over a million and a half dollars,
which is extraordinary.
I feel so honored to have met these people
and to have them share their story with me
and I have been able to share their story.
I am also an accredited life coach, as well as an academic,
and storytelling is very much central to that process.
However, instead of going back to the past
life coaching is about wanting to change your future story.
So when clients come to see me it’s because they want to make a change
and it’s about transforming their lives.
One of the ways you can do this is to narrativize your experiences,
where you are now
and to set goals, and to try and move on, to try and achieve those goals.
So telling stories is a really powerful activity,
we do it to get a sense of ourselves; to position ourselves in the world
to be able to share our experiences, because of what they encode.
So we are constantly revising our life stories as part of this process,
it’s all a process.
And today we’ve heard some incredible stories.
And as I look out here,
look at you, looking at me, telling my story,
because I’m telling you about my research,
and in my research I’m telling you other people’s stories,
I wonder…
What is your story?
(Applause)
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