Another way of talking about theme:

Using grounded theory in the humanities

James KelleyMississippi State University – Meridian

MLA 2013

A little background

My first (near) use of grounded theory without ever having heard the term:

“Song, Story, or History: Resisting Claims of a Coded Message in the African American Spiritual ‘Follow the Drinking Gourd.’” The Journal of Popular Culture 41.2 (2008)

Multiple sources

Multiple sources, including: • Two episodes on television series: The Fresh

Prince of Bel-Air and Treasure Hunters• Internet sites for and by educators at the K-12

level (including over 50 lesson plans)• Internet sites (and an educational video) by

three government agencies: NASA, NSA, NPS• Published pieces in the academic and popular

presses

Theoretical sampling

My method of collecting information resembled the “theoretical sampling” discussed in Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss’ The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (1967).•The sampling was purposeful, not random or rigidly preplanned.•The number and types of groups were not determined until the research was completed. There was “an ongoing inclusion of groups.”

Approach to the information

My method of making sense of the information also resembled their methods. According to Glaser and Strauss, •grounded theory requires the “hard study of much data.”•grounded theory is the opposite of “logo-deductive theory.” It is “grounded in” and “emerges from” the data.

An overview of grounded theory

Recursive process

Collecting, coding, and analyzing are done together as much as possible. They blur and intertwine continuously. One should not disregard the “fresh analytical idea” that occurs after the process has begun. The “constant comparison” of different groups highlights meaningful similarities and differences.When does the process end?

Example of To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is the single most widely discussed novel at enotes.com. There are presently:6,664 Q&A items for To Kill a Mockingbird2,848 Q&A items for Lord of the Flies1,440 Q&A items for 19841,340 Q&A items for The Scarlet Letter1,060 Q&A items for Frankenstein

Theme 1: Moral Character

When talking to students about fictional characters in Lee’s novel, particularly when talking about Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell, the teachers frequently move from character analysis to explicit and implicit statements of morality. Describing the fictional characters in the novel becomes a way of talking about moral character in our world.

Theme 2: Life Lessons

When talking to students about the experiences and changes of the younger characters in the novel, particularly when talking about Scout and Jem Finch, the teachers frequently move in their answers toward explicit and implicit discussions of identity development, intellectual and social development, loss of innocence, growing awareness of hypocrisy and evil in the world, and other topics related to adolescence.

Theme 3: Text and Context

When talking to students about the novel’s setting and publication date, the teachers touch briefly on past and present organizations of race, class, and gender. The novel’s immediate setting (the town of Maycomb, AL) often receives detailed treatment in the teachers’ answers, whereas discussions of social structures in the early 1930s and in the late 1950s are often brief and undeveloped.

Bringing the themes together

The teachers’ tendency to focus on unchanging and universal truths, particularly the central idea of a young person learning to distinguish between good and evil – coupled with the tendency to discuss the novel without reference to the Jim Crow laws of the period in which the story is set and/or the early Civil Rights era during which the novel was first published – transforms the complex novel To Kill a Mockingbird into a simple and timeless morality tale.

Enotes.com page for The Scarlet Letter

Six most recently posted questions

Sample teachers’ posts on the rose bush

The following two posts can be compared and contrasted for the following:•Level of detail•Discussion of symbolism•Discussion of ambiguity•Use of direct quotations from the novel

One post on the rose bush“The rose bush is like Pearl. It grows in a location where it serves as a stark contrast against the prison. Pearl is beautiful and grows in stark contrast to the fact that she was created out of "sin." Pearl and her mother, Hester Pryne, have been brought before the small counsel so they can determine if Hester should be allowed to raise the child, Pearl. They identify Hester as a sinful woman and do not want the child to be raised to follow in her mother's footsteps. When Pearl is asked where she came from, she tells them that she was plucked from the rose bush. Her wit is also thorn like.” Posted by mkcapen1 Teacher Middle School on January 29, 2010 at 8:05 AM

A second post on the rose bush

“The rose bush in this novel is another example of a symbol, just like the character of Hester Prynne, that defies easy interpretation and eschews classification. The narrator remains deliberately vague about how this important symbol can be interpreted, but what I think your question refers to is one possible legend that is cited as a potential explanation for the existence of the rose bush at the prison door, which is a rather incongruous place for a such a beautiful flower to grow.

A second post on the rose bush, cont.“Note what the text tells us about this: “This rosebush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it--or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison door--we shall not take upon us to determine.” Thus we can see that one potential story that explains the existence of the rose bush is that it sprang up beneath the saint Ann Hutchinson as she entered the prison door, but the truth of this rumor is never given.” Posted by accessteacher Teacher High School - 10th Grade on July 28, 2011 at 9:38 PM

To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scarlet Letter

I now wonder where the differences lie in how teachers discuss these two novels:The individual teachers?The school grades?The texts themselves? I wonder if we are more likely to ascribe complexity to some texts (e.g. Hawthorne’s novels and short stories) and less likely to do the same for others (e.g. Robert Frost’s poetry, To Kill a Mockingbird, or Harry Potter).

Celebration of flexibility and freedom

The Discovery of Grounded Theory is worth reading not only for its discussion of the method but also for its challenge to the still dominant model in social science research:•“the rigorous rules of verification” are “so stifling to the creative energies required for discovering theory” (7)•“escaping the shackles of existing theories” (38)

Literary Studies

I have used grounded theory to examine discussions of specific literary works:•Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird•Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and The Scarlet Letter•Robert Frost’s poetry, concentrating on “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”•J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter

Cultural Studies

I have also used grounded theory to examine non-literary phenomena:•claims of a coded message in the song “Follow the Drinking Gourd”•how gamers talk about the physical appearance of the male characters that they are able to create and manipulate within a popular online multiplayer game•choices for names of guilds by LGBT gamers in online games•motivations and aesthetic concerns of people who create and/or consume “celebrity fake” pornography

Conclusion

Glaser and Strauss had only the sociologist in mind as they wrote their book, stating that generating sociological theory is something that “only sociologists can do.”But their method, built around the “hard study of much data” and intended to liberate “the creative energies required for discovering theory,” can help any of us answer almost any question that begins with the words “How do people…?”

Source

Glaser, Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1967.