Dangerous Tales: Antiabortion Narratives and the U.S. Supreme Court

Storytelling is a way of communicating information that is lost through other modes of delivery. All good writers of fiction understand the unique contribution that stories make to human understanding. A good story, like fiction, affords its listeners “the opportunity to move inside another human being, to look out through that person’s eyes, hear with her ears, think with his thoughts, feel with her feelings” (Bauer 1994, x). It is little wonder then that personal narrative has found a place in movements for social change. From the civil rights fights of the 1960s to consciousness raising feminist groups of the 70s to the MeToo# movement of today, personal narratives have helped shape new understandings of human experience. At the same time, there are dangers to an overemphasis and overreliance on personal narrative as a reliable source of knowledge within social movements.