"Do You Understand Why I Don't Share That?": Exploring Tellability Within Untellable Romantic Relationship Origin Tales. Issue 3 (27th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jackl, Jennifer A.
• Is Part Of: Western journal of communication. Volume 82:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 315
• Page End: 335
• Publication Date: 2018-05-27
• Subjects: Narrative -- Personal Narrative -- Romantic Relationship Origin Tale -- Tellability; Oral communication -- Periodicals; 428.3
• DOI: 10.1080/10570314.2017.1347274
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1057-0314

Abstract

Abstract : The purposes of this study were to gain a clearer conceptualization of what makes romantic relationship origin (RRO) stories untellable, and how an untellable RRO tale impacts a narrator. In-depth interviews and open-coding revealed RRO stories are untellable if the narrative might generate negative judgement of the characters or relationship, and/or negative sanctions. Untellable RRO stories caused narrators to feel narrative exhaustion, lack of validation, limit identity construction and joy, and perpetuate silence. Untellable RRO stories also created a secret story world for narrators. These findings provide a deeper understanding of narrative tellability and how narrators "story around" untellable tales.