This paper explores the implication of narrative in the context of Canadian criminology and explores its influence on criminality and criminal desistance. In the research of both humanitarian and social sciences, narrative criminology emerged nearly a decade after most other fields had adopted the concept of narrative identity into their research and social perspective. The examination of society and identity in the perpetuation and changes in our social moral codes that define deviance, and by extension, crime through determining normalcy. Narrative identity is the theory that identity develops from the contextualization and internalization of external culture by the individual. Through this, the individual understands their place in the narrative
Psychologists are debating and trying to figure out whether the social identity theory, a theory developed by Tajfel Turner (1979) for the examination of intergroup relations, is a robust way of explaining behaviour. There has been many research studies in the past that proves that it is a robust way of explaining behaviour. Social identity theory explains human behaviours such as in-group favouritism, and ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the act of believing that one’s social group is centrally important, and that all other groups are below them on the social pyramid. In this case, one will judge other groups on their ethnic group, language, religion and behaviour.
The telling of stories seems to characterize the interpersonal interaction in time, in different cultures and between people of all ages, even children. The ability of talking about what happened to an individual yesterday, the day before or the year before, is intrinsic in the human kind. Because of their nature, cognitive, cultural, social, and psychological, narratives have drawn the attention of sociologist, anthropologists, historians and linguists since the beginning of scholarship. Aristotle was one of the first scholars defining the structure of a narrative: “A beginning [of a narrative] is that which is not itself necessarily after anything else, and which has naturally something else after it; an end, that which is naturally after something else, either as its necessary or usual consequent and with nothing else after it; and a middle, that which is by nature after one thing and also another after it”. Furthermore, Aristotle concludes, "a well-constructed Plot, therefore, cannot either begin or end at any point one likes; beginning and end in it must be of the forms just described.
Social categorization theory developed by Turner (1978) describes the categorization of people based on salient attributes like gender, ethnicity or age, resulting in stereotyping on the basis of these differences. Social categorization theory posits that similarities and dissimilarities of demographics can lead formation of different group with resulting effects on member of in-group favorably themselves to the detriment of members of out-groups social (Turner, Brown & Tajfel, 1979). Self-categorization theory explains when individuals categorize themselves by assigning to themselves the manners, actions and other characteristics they link with association within a specific group (Schmitt, Branscombe, Silvia, Garcia, & Spears. 2016). By means of self-categorization and membership of a group, people cultivate a social identity that functions as a social-cognitive scheme (customs, standards and attitudes) for their group associated action.
According to him, Social Identity Theory is on the premise that positive social identity is based on advantageous intergroup evaluations, that a positive dependence exists between forte of the group identification and the quantity of positive intergroup diversity. First, he explains the relationship between group identification and in-group bias. In this, he maintains that where group identification is founded on a positive in-group assessment and that if individuals are inspired to realize and/or uphold a constructive social identity, and if in-groups are assessed based on their relation to pertinent out-groups, then there should be a relation between an identification and prejudice. Citing various researches, the author asserts that there is a probability that groups can vary from each other widely in their social identity purposes and these identity functions are not properly captured by Social Identity Theory as
This method looks at the biblical narrative not as a historical source that something lies behind the text. But, it looks at the narrative as a literary text that may be analysed in literary terms that is plot, characterization, point of view in narrative like other works of literature. Narrative criticism reads biblical narratives as literature or story, taking a fiction approach, which treats the text as art or poetry. They interpret the text in its final form in terms of its own story world. A narrative critic’s close reading assumes literary integrity and reads the text holistically.
According to Smith and Anderson that defining “narrative” includes various kinds of stories, like as individual and family backgrounds, myths, fantasies, novels or everyday narrative, that are used to analyse or defend their effort and actions. Looking from the point of view of narrative standard, rather than looking for wherefore, the effective relationships and look to highlight human ideas, the author has to focus at it between the mind of interconnects of story actions. According to Downing (2005) mentioned that inner thought degree, the author looks for the ways that interconnects of their behaviour and actions allows the author to analyse and to take a good look of their experience. Their individual stories do not replace the fact, but reprise it by forming new plan. Explanation is done for that reason to individual consideration about which bits or view of good highlight their individual knowledges.
Labov (1972) suggest conversational narratives is a fully verballised oral narrative of personal experience that should have two specific functions, namely referential function and evaluative function. Referential function could be found from the narratives temporally sequenced framework of abstract, orientation, complication, resolution and code while evaluative function the narrator presents particular perspective to evaluate through the audience responses. For instance, Labov asked adolescent African-Americans to tell him about a dangerous situation that they have experienced, evaluative effects are found through the narrator, e.g. external evaluation from adding an explanation or additional description to highlight particular point, embedded evaluation from putting evaluation comments into the characters in the narrative, as well as different kinds of comparisons and intensifiers, like gestures, sound effects, quantifiers, repetition, all of them provided emphasis and created a climax of the narrator. Labov (1972) emphasis evaluative devices enable to tell us whether the story is terrifying, dangerous, wild, crazy, amusing, hilarious, wonderful or even strange enough to be reported.
While differing approaches to Role Theory, as described by Biddle, may provide literary scholars with a useful framework within which one may better assign, locate, and thus understand how social roles are developed, functions performed and conflicts mediated, there are a number of instances in which the field’s limitations outweigh its usefulness as an analytic tool, not just in the field of literary studies, but in general. Jeanne Jackson’s critical analysis of role theory will serve as the starting point and guideline in this discussion. Jackson points out that role theory “falsely reifies certain social ideologies into concrete realities or objective templates, and names them roles.” This is to say, it perpetuates a normative illusion that could give way to a false sense of universality that does not admit variation or diversity, because these pre-packaged roles may in fact be based on conservative social ideologies. Thus, a number of factors could be rendered invisible (for example, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, social, economic and cultural factors), and an ideal image, upheld by a conservative political ideology, would exemplify the “proper way” to execute a social role. One example that Jackson highlights is that of the role
Historical Consciousness as Motivative Dynamics and Fundamental Platform for Indian Christian Theological Formulations On the onset one may think that the content of this paper is dealing with historical theology. This paper is not intended to do so. However, in a way, it is related to historical theology for it acknowledges and affirms the historical component in theological formulation and articulation. Historical theology involves a study of the formulation and development of Christian doctrines through history and how they were understood during different periods of time. One of the prime intentions behind this enquiry is to determine the historical origin of these theological formulations.