Narratives and Memory Work by Nick Rowe | Analysis

Narratives and Memory Work by Nick Rowe AnalysisAengus DonaldA 1000 battle cry review of 1 of the recommended chapters or articles. Students lead choose a chapter or article from one of the ordained texts, and write a review of the content, as understood by the student in terms of the writers intent, the psychodramatic theory, and its application to practise.ResponseReview of Chapter 4 Narratives and Memory Work, by Nick Rowe (2007).Playing the former(a) Dramatizing Personal Narratives in Playback TheatreRowe explores the relationship between memory, memoir and the egotism and reminds the reader that the audiences stories argon what make up the curiosities that be enacted out in front of them. Rowe in person opens up by sharing a story about his fathers death. This vulnerable space that Rowe sits in each(prenominal)ows for sonority and connection with the reader, whilst informing them that that the story is the basis of discussion in this chapter. His actual experience of p hysically piece of writing the story down years after his fathers death is shared with the reader as a very balanced moment in his life.Drawing on research in the palm of psychology, school of thought and psych oppositewiseapy, Rowe intends to compare and contrast different aspects of memory, narrative and the self to show the breadth, depth and scope of the subjects.Rowe proposes that it is lead astray to conceptualize playback theatre as a mirror of the essence of a protagonists prejudiced narrative. This is because it denies the relational, negotiated and context-rich (Rowe) aspects of Playback theatre as well as negating the humanness of the performers, protagonist, and conductors. Actors may have different responses to the narrative than the protagonist. Actors may have incongruent obstacles of their own.Being present to the essence of the storyline and then responding on the stage do by the director, protagonist and audience members can occur on any range or outperfo rm of response. Rowe proposes to utilize a model of a cumulative process of mediation in which to each one eon a narrative is retold, the protagonist or client creates and refines the expression of the phenomenological and subjective content of the narrative.MacIntyre proposes that the most efficient source of intelligibility for human beings is received finished narrative, which he believes is the human identitys organizing principle. If this were the case harmonize to Rowe, every known thing would be spoken into existence, which I relate to the opening creation theodolite of the bible. I feel that if this was the case, we would be our own gods and all words would be the words of gods.Rowe would sooner equalise not with MacIntyres notion, but with Griemas idea that Narrative structures do not exist per se, but are a mere moment in the generation of signification. Griemas school of thought leans more toward convey making, than MacIntyres idea of instantaneously announcing man ifestations of life experience.Barclay presents the idea that autobiographical remembering is largely an improvisational act, vie out by protoselves. This makes me feel that there is simultaneously room for both meaning making and traffic experience into existence, and perhaps one cant exist without the other. Barclays work also makes me revere if we completely embody these protoselves when we are being truly spontaneous.Lyotard presents that the idea of self is not one of soul singularity in a world of increasing billions of other individuals, but more so of each human as a nodal point in an growing pool of specific communication circuits. Lyotard sees the self as first and foremost, a practical project of everyday life (Holstein and Gubrium, 1995) and it is neer a sinless object.In Playback theatre populate are invited to perform their stories and witness the enactment. This halters the tellers self-creation process when the take in of the protagonists enactment has been h anded over to the actors. The conductors questioning in Playback allows the events to emerge. Rowe does not believe that this is rewriting the self (Freeman 1993).Vocal language is a primary technique of narrative in playback. Utilizing and encouraging other expressive methods such as acoustic, visual, spatial and theatrical images can significantly extend the tellers memory work (Rowe).In the section Poetry drugs the dragon of disbelief, Rowe writes that subsequent re-telling of a narrative emphasises an aspect of the story that leads to the question Can we ever trust memory? (Rowe). Re-enactments by means of Playback theatre may contribute to the fictionalization of actually false aspects of the memory in Rowes case this is the Red Dress, which moody out to be pick apart. On the borderline of life and death, the colour must be red pink will just not do (Rowe).Donald Spence writes of the therapist being engaged as rather a pattern maker than a pattern finder in an artistic str uggle (Spence 1982). Enabling people to sit in acceptance of their narrative and themes explored through language and movement is the task of the therapist. I personally resonate a lot with Spences notion of making patterns as opposed to finding them. It is such(prenominal) more creative than reductionist in its approach.Vocal language has its limitations. As peoples traumas can lie buried within tissues and sinew (Rowe), they may need to be expressed through movement and dance. This may assist to bring traumas to vocalisation, or can be experienced or witnessed as pre-verbal expression. Rowe warns therapists to be as aware as possible of potential body, personal and cultural memories that may hoist in sensitive group work.Rowe agrees with Kristeva in that a text cant possibly be a hermitically sealed unit existing independently on other texts. This intertextuality emphasises the significance of relationships between all aspects of inter-personal and intra-personal narrative. A fi eld of open possibility allows for relationships between different texts and aspects of self to be connected through a paradox of self-definition on the one hand and re-negotiating relationships with both the audience and conductor on the other hand. This point of vulnerability allows the teller to be moulded and evaluated by the group or society at large. The stories that are enacted can have a transformative effect on the audience as well as the teller, creating a group felt shift. Annette Kuhn suggests that public and private memory show to be less separable than has been commonly believed. In this idea, what affects the protagonist is more than likely to affect the audience.Phillips presents the idea that the only good translation is the one that invites retranslation the one that doesnt want to be verified so much as altered (Philips 2002). This philosophy reminds me of Nietzsches attempts at self criticisms. If a translation is hailed as the One True translation, narratives w ill never be able to be dynamic or interact without eventually going stagnant, but will exist as, as Rowe puts it, a new, but never final, version. Perhaps call it play-forward theatre? asks Rowe, expanding on his theme of an ever-evolving reality of expressive experience.