Criticisms
Critics of Fisher’s narrative theory contend mainly that it is not universally applicable as Fisher states. For example, Rowland (1989) believes that narrative theory should be applied strictly to communication that fits classic narrative patterns, because the generality with which Fisher applies narrative theory undermines its credibility.
William Kirkwood (1992) observes that Fisher's logic of good reasons focuses on prevailing values and fails to account for the ways in which stories can promote social change. In some ways, both Kirkwood and Fisher agree that this observation is more of an extension to the theory than a punishing critique.
It can also be argued that some forms of communication are not narrative in the way that Fisher maintains. Science fiction and fantasy novels or movies do to conform to most people values, they often challenge values (Turner 2007)
Fisher's narrative paradigm offers a reworking of Aristotelian analysis, which has always dominated the field of rhetorical thinking. Fisher's approach is strongly democratic. Because Fisher's view of communication is shown as a narrative people do not generally need training or expertise to decide if the story holds together or believe it to be true. When to comes to evaluating coherence and fidelity, ordinary people with common sense are competent rhetorical critics (Griffin 305).
The narrative paradigm also finds critics who believe that it is not useful to its conservative bias. William Kirkwood (1992) saw that Fisher's logic of good reasons only focus on prevailing issues, but fails to see all the ways in which stories can promote social change (Turner 2007).
The narrative paradigm has also been criticized for failing to be consistence with claims that Fisher has made about it. Its been found that the narrative approach does not provide a more democratic structure compared to the one imposed by the rational world paradigm. It also does not completely offer an alternative to that paradigm (Rowland 1989)
Read more about this topic: Narrative Paradigm
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