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Extensions of Narrative Rationality
As Kirkwood (1992) asserted, “it is difficult to find in Fisher’s account of rhetoric any
opportunity, let alone, obligation, for rhetoric to confront or
expand people’s understanding of
themselves or life” (p. 31). Given that
Eat, Pray, Love is a personal narrative that confronts both
the author’s understanding of herself, as well as her audience’s understanding of themselves,
Fisher’s narrative paradigm and, specifically, narrative rationality can only take us so far in the
assessment of the text.
Kirkwood (1992) finds Fisher’s theory limiting in the belief that only stories “that do not
negate the self-
conceptions that people hold of themselves” (1987, p. 75)
–
or, in the current
study, the personal ontological and axiological beliefs shaped by postmodernism and third wave
feminism
–
can be deemed true by an audience. He argues, along with several other scholars
(Bennett & Edelman, 1985; Rowland, 1989; Warnick, 1987), that rhetoric has the opportunity,
and sometimes, obligation, “to confront or expand people’s understanding of themselves or life”
(Kirkwood, 1
992, p. 30). He goes on to assert that stories “help people discover their capacity to
become what they are not” (p. 32) which has clear implications for the creation and
reconstruction of identity. As a solution, he offers that a “rhetoric of possibility,” presented
through narratives, can better account for how rhetors challenge people with “new and
unsuspected possibilities of being and action in the world” (Kirkwood, 1992, p. 31). Here, we
can begin to see not only how Gilbert was presented with new ways to think about her own
identity through the rhetorical acts performed to her by others along her journey, but how she is
able to present these new possibilities to her audience through her narrative.
Stroud (2002) also attempted to offer a new understanding of the narrative paradigm
which “allows for the introduction of new values and narratives to an audience” (p. 370). He
EAT, PRAY, LOVE: CONFRONTING AND RECONSTRUCTING FEMALE IDENTITY
13
argued that the narrative paradigm doesn’t allow for audiences to accept new stories that
challenge their values
–
it only allows audiences the choice of accepting narratives that resonate
with their existing values and beliefs (Stroud, 2002). Through his study of multivalent narratives
–
i.e. “stories that include co
-existing and conflicting value structures [that] expose audiences to
new values and ideas” (p. 371) –
Stroud’s (2002) conclusion was that certain stories can still
“offer good reasons for belief and/or action” (p. 371) even if they present contradicting values to
the reader. We can see how this relates to Gilbert’s jo
urney to foreign lands where she interacts
with people and cultures who share very different values and beliefs from her own. Even though
her experiences presented her with conflicting values and beliefs, she still found good reasons to
adopt new thinking, a new identity and authentic happiness for herself as a result.
These extensions of Fisher’s narrative rationality provide a better account for the
improbabilities, contradictions and generative possibilities that are inherent in the postmodern
subject and female identity in the third wave, as well as
Gilbert’s journey and personal narrative.
Gilbert was forced her to reconstruct a new identity by connecting to a universal identity, which
was a possibility that was presented to her by others along her journey which did not meet the
criteria for Fisher’s original conception of narrative rationality.
In other words, both Gilbert and
her readers can still come to accept and act upon stories that don’t necessarily meet the criteria
for rationality as Fisher outlines, even though they
don’t ring true or familiar
. Due to the
dismantling of larger social structures by postmodernism, and the multiplicity of female identity
presented in the third wave, Kirkwood’s and Stroud’s studies not onl
y help inform the text and
deepen our understanding of how Gilbert interprets and chooses possibilities for her identity,
they also give us insight into how other women might construct new identities in light of these
current philosophical and ideological forces.
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