From hero to villain to hero: Making experience sensible through embodied narrative sensemaking

2012/01/01 by Ann Cunliffe, Ann L. Cunliffe, Chris Coupland · 455 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Art #Computer science #Construct (python library) #Embodied cognition #Epistemology #HERO #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Literature #Narrative #Perspective (graphical) #Philosophy #Political science #Psychology #Public relations #Sensemaking #Social psychology #Sociology #Sport and Mega-Event Impacts #Sports, Gender, and Society #Storytelling #Visual arts

paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0018726711424321

published in Human Relations 65(1), 63-88 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2012/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

This article aims to make a contribution to the literature by addressing an undertheorized aspect of sensemaking: its embodied narrative nature. We do so by integrating a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective of narrative and storytelling with a documentary case taken from a filmed tour of a sports team to illustrate the process of sensemaking around a specific event. We argue that we make our lives, ourselves and our experience ‘sensible’ in embodied interpretations and interactions with others. We suggest this occurs within contested, embedded, narrative performances in which we try to construct sensible and plausible accounts that are responsive to the moment and to retrospective and anticipatory narratives.

Citations

• Themed article: Sexed up intelligence or irresponsible reporting? The interplay of virtual communication and emotion in dispute sensemaking

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