What do we mean by “The Story?”: A Workshop
A workshop created in “Literature and Journalism in America,” in 2015.
For two classes next week, we’re going to have informal student presentations and discussions on the selection from Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting By in America —the chapter called “Serving in Florida.” You will be assigned to one of the groups described below.
If you go to the “People” section of this Canvas site, you’ll see that Canvas has assigned you to one of the four groups below. What I’m asking you to do is simply as follows:
- Read “Serving in Florida” * (N.B. The first chapter of Nickel and Dimed).
- Then, Look at the assignment below according to your group. The descriptions below describe what you should be focusing on. Notice that some groups (1 and 3) are assigned to offer reflections on Monday, and the other two (2 and 4) on Wednesday. You’ll see that each assignment involves doing something like watching a video, or reading an essay, or looking at some statistics.
- Go to “Discussions” and write a one-paragraph reflection on what the prompt below tells you to do.
- Be ready to discuss your reflection in class. (Obviously, you’ll be reflecting alongside four or five other people who have done the same thing. But since two groups will be reflecting, each group will be restricted to 15 minutes of reflection/discussion, at the start.)
Here are our four groups:
Group 1: The News Story Group
Be prepared to talk for 10-15 minutes on what you consider the “news content” of the story Ehrenreich’s chapter tells. That is, what is it telling its readers that they need to know?–about American social life, the economy, today’s class structure, and so on? If you like, imagine yourself as the editor who gave Ehrenreich the assignment in the first place. Please remember, as well, that your task is descriptive, not evaluative. Don’t offer comments, right away, on what you felt about whether she met this task. Just describe the “story” in terms of its ostensible news content. The Research Task for this Group: Go to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics at https://www.bls.gov/ , and build up a worksheet of statistics on low-wage work in the U.S.
Group 2: The Story-Form Group
Be prepared to talk for 10-15 minutes on what you consider the “story form” that Ehrenreich’s chapter represents—that is, the literary form into which she might be thought to “plug” her content. You might list the parts of the story that seem “literary” to you (e.g. “first person narration” or “how she uses dialogue” or doesn’t), and see if any parts remind you of fictional stories or genres you have encountered before, e.g. as an English major. (One hint: you might look up “the picaresque”). What is the style of the chapter, and in particular, what is Ehrenreich’s persona?—that is, if you thought of “Barb” as a “character,” what kind of character is she? Please remember, as well, that your task is descriptive, not evaluative. Don’t offer comments, right away, on what you felt about the way the story was told. Just describe it. Your research task: read portions of this essay on the picaresque: S. Ortiz Taylor, “Episodic Structure and the Picaresque Novel,” The Journal of Narrative Technique, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Fall, 1977), pp. 218-225.
Group 3: The Subject-Story Group
Be prepared to talk for 10-15 minutes on what you might say about Ehrenreich’s chapter if you were one of the subjects of this chapter—that is, some of the workers it represents. That is, in this case, by “story” I mean the story such subjects might tell if Ehrenreich was not present, about their lives and their workplaces—as it were, their “story” in terms of “their viewpoint” or “the way they’d describe the world they live in.” Please begin with passages in Ehrenreich’s chapter (testimonies from such workers), but feel free to make educated guesses, as well, about what they might testify to. Your research assignment: go through YouTube or one of the college library’s databases, and see if you can find an interview of a service work. (Please note: do not interview a Campus Worker; such an interview would have to be cleared by the university’s faculty “IRB” board.)
Group 4: The “Story of How the Story was Made” Group
Be prepared to talk about what you consider the reporter-techniques and methods that Ehrenreich’s chapter represents. That is, how did she go about reporting on this story—what strategies did she use? An obvious place to start here is thinking about “immersion” techniques, and the strategy of going “undercover.” But take things beyond that: where did Ehrenreich go; which kinds of jobs did she pick; to whom did she talk? Please remember, as well, that your task is descriptive, not evaluative. Don’t offer comments, right away, on what you felt about the way the story was told. Just describe it. Your research assignment: watch this YouTube video with Ehrenreich talking about her work:
Our Goals
What are my goals for this exercise? Primarily, our goal together will be to tease out the different ways in which we use the word “story” when talking about a work of narrative journalism, so that we can see the work as
- a process rather than simply a “product” or text—that is, something produced and even negotiated on the ground;
- a matter of a reporter’s selections (e.g. which literary form to use, with whom to talk, how to research the matter); -and-
- not an inevitable “reflection” of the real, but something that might have been contested even as it was made. That is, maybe these dimensions of “the story” we’ll generate will “match up,” and maybe they won’t; maybe subjects in the story would disagree with what Ehrenreich reports on, or add to it; perhaps we will discover convergence points, or gaps or points of potential friction in how she approached her task or reporting on low-wage work and decided to write it up.
On our first day, groups 1 and 3 will present. On the next class day, groups 2 and 4 will present. This is, I should add, not a “debate.” It’s a collaborative process through which we can explore the “dimensionality” of works of narrative journalism. Thanks.