Questions of Narrative Identity: A Personal Narrative in Dharamsala, India by Emily Bell

 Looking again at Emily Bell's experience, I found her project proposal in the online database of field study papers and once again found a lot of great information to help me in my preparation for a creative writing project in Dharamsala, India.  At the same time, I was able to see more clearly where our projects are going to be different.

In this project proposal, narrative theory is defined as "the study of story, whether or not the story is written
down. It explores how and why humans tell stories to themselves and each other. Because storytelling is one of the oldest and most universal forms of communication, narrative theory argues that individuals often view their world through a lens of perceived narrative and make decisions within a narrative framework (Thomas)."  The source for that definition is found at the end of this review.

Emily states off the get go that telling stories is a "long standing tradition in humanity."  She goes on to explain why Dharamsala is a good location for her to write her creative project.  She says that the location is diverse enough that she could see if narrative was really universal, that there are plenty of places to volunteer at (which was what she planned to do on a daily basis), and that the had the interest necessary to do it.  When thinking about my project, my motivations are slightly different.  I have not taken the time to polish them, but I think my motivations come from desire (in that we are the same), the diversity, but in a different sense, because I want to look at the different people and do a portrait of them, and also to help raise awareness for the Tibetan cause by writing about these stories that the Dalai Lama himself has encouraged people to tell.

One thing that I really liked in reviewing Emily's project proposal was what she says about ethics, and her concern to be ethical.  I think especially when I am going for a creative project, it is important that I emphasize that this is not going to technically be research like so many of my other field study students.  I wonder if it will be more tricky for me though.  Emily looked at her own personal experience and wrote an account based on that, but I will be looking at the stories of others.  I will be careful in crafting my IRB proposal, but it is definitely something I need to be aware of when establishing the differences between our projects.

She identifies two differences in narrative theory that were helpful for establishing appropriate background on the subject.  You can either look at it in terms of the great works of our times (ie. the Iliad, Odyssey, etc), or on the day to day scale, which has been the emphasis lately.

A question I have for Emily is how her final project turned out.  I reviewed the final she included in the field study database, but in this proposal she said that her final would be a novella, around 100-200 pages in length.  This will be something I ask her when I get a chance to interview her about her experience.  

One of the most important things Emily included in her proposal that will help me is her own sources.  I have included these here for my own personal reference to do more research on my subject:

Structure and Identity: A Personal Examination of Universal Narrative by Emily Bell

Emily Bell was a field study student who went to Dharamsala, India to study narrative theory in the spring/summer of 2010.  We were friends in the prep class required for our program, and it was nice to have a fellow English major to try to relate to in the sea of all these research projects.  After reading this final paper, I am really grateful that it is available on the field study database because there is a lot of useful information here not only in terms of location, but also my new project idea.  Here is what I gathered from it.

First, I've just got to say that I relate completely when Emily states that people would look at her strange when she would say she was doing a "creative writing project."  This was my experience in Ghana, and it looks like I will have the same experience in India.  Whenever she wanted to sound extra smart, she would say she was studying "narrative theory."  Mine?  "I am studying the authenticity of experience in travel writing."  How is that to swallow?

There were several quotes I pulled from this reading that really related to my project.  Emily says that "everyone has a story" and that the people there are especially good at telling it."  She goes on to say that she was surprised at how "readily Tibetans will talk about their lives here."  Some of it she says is from a sense of responsibility since the "Dalai Lama himself has encouraged all newcomers to share their experiences with the world" (3).  This statement is golden!  I have got to find the original source for that.  It gives me hope that this is a feasible project and that I might be helping with their goals if I am able to write their stories.  If anything, telling me their story is not as invasive as it could have potentially been seen.

Emily goes on to say that "stories have power.  Life does not happen in stories, but we think in stories" (4).  This is where we get to some of her sources she mentions and the narrative theory she was looking at.  She cites two other works I have copied here:

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2004. Print.

This source talks about the universal narrative and could be something to look further into.  She also defines something called an "Elixir," or the process of the hero taking home her or her new found knowledge from being abroad that is essential to stories.

Fisher, Walter R. Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, 1987. Print.

This source she mentions goes into how we are constantly recreating our lives through stories and how we tell stories to ourselves about ourselves.

Both of these external sources I think would be great to look into, but more than anything I was just grateful to look through this final paper and look at her experience as an English major writing a story in McLeod Ganj.  After reading this paper I definitely want to get together and have a discussion on her findings.  This has been one of the best sources I have encountered so far, and it got me excited for my project!