Metaphors - A Path to Narrative Understanding

This article illustrates the process of narrative hermeneutic interpretation. Narratives were analyzed and understood as text on different levels of interpretation. Analyzing narrative structure by means of emplotment focused on how the story was narrated. Further understanding is promoted by analyses of narrative content (what the text talks about) and could be revealed by metaphors used by participants or constructed by the researcher. I will argue in favor of metaphors not only as analytic tools but also as means to communicate findings. Through their ability to make connections between language and body metaphors they can facilitate appropriation of new understandings.