Exemplarist Narrative Analysis
Exemplarist Narrative Analysis (ENA) is a qualitative method developed within the Gen Z Role Models Project to interpret stories about religious and spiritual influence in contemporary digital culture. The approach begins from the observation that many young people make sense of life’s deepest questions—about meaning, identity, and morality—through narratives centred on exemplary figures. ENA therefore treats each story as an exemplarist narrative: a narrative in which a protagonist encounters, imitates, questions, or resists a religious or spiritual exemplar. By analysing the structure of the story and the meanings attached to these figures, ENA helps researchers identify how Gen Z authors imagine the cosmic order of reality, the formation of the self, and the moral ideals worth pursuing. The method combines elements of narrative analysis and thematic interpretation, guiding researchers through the key components of a story—from its plot and setting to its characters, themes, and wider significance.
Below is a step-by-step guide to help you complete the ENA Canvas for a single story. Be sure to note the story ID and to keep in mind your central research questions as you go. Once you’ve analysed several stories (one story per Canvas), try looking for cross-cutting themes across those submissions. Your themes should answer or speak to your research questions.
1. Plot
Begin by describing the narrative arc of the story.
- Beginning: Where does the story start? What is the initial situation?
- Middle: What tensions, conflicts, or turning points occur?
- End: How does the story resolve (or not)?
Focus especially on actions that move the story forward.
2. Setting
Next, identify the world of the story.
- Where is the protagonist located (physically and socially)?
- What cultural, digital, or religious context surrounds them?
- What assumptions about the world seem to frame the story?
The world you identify may be informed by the text itself and by your research questions. For example, if you’re interested in how churches are portrayed in the stories, then you might focus upon the religious context.
3. Characters
Steps 3 and 4 sit at the heart of Exemplarist Narrative Analysis. Focus on two characters in particular. First, the fictional protagonist (the main character in the submission). Second, the fictional religious/spiritual influencer (the exemplar).
For each, answer the following:
- What do they value? What motivates them?
- What do they do? How do they interact (if at all) with the other?
- How are they portrayed physically (their clothes, age, etc.) and in terms of their character (admirable, ambiguous, flawed, authoritative, etc.)?
It’s important to think empathically: try to get into their motivations and perspectives. The more you understand the characters, the better your analysis of the story’s central themes.
4. Themes
Having focussed on the characters, you can now explore deeper dimensions of meaning. Pay attention to three domains often shaped by religious or spiritual traditions:
- Cosmic – What vision of reality, truth, destiny, or transcendence appears?
- Self – What kind of person is the protagonist becoming?
- Moral – What counts as good, right, virtuous, or worth imitating?
In particular, pay attention to how these domains are these embodied in the exemplar. Exemplarist Narrative Analysis assumes that religious and spiritual exemplars will speak to each domain in some way. After all, religious and spiritual beliefs aren’t just abstract ideas, floating ‘out there’ in the world. They are lived out in concrete, particular lives – in the lives of exemplars.
5. Narrator
Steps 3 and 4 uncover religious and spiritual meanings associated with the story’s exemplar and with the protagonist’s interaction with that figure. But now it’s time to step back from the narrative itself to consider who is telling the story.
- So, who do you think is telling the story? Is it the Gen Z author who wrote it? What do you know about their background? How might their background influence the story?
- What is the narrator’s tone or position toward the story? Are they reliable, ironic, sympathetic, distant?
- To what extent might the author be projecting themselves into the narrative?
- How does the narrator shape your interpretation?
Remember, the words of the story may suggest one interpretation. But once you reflect on the narrator themself, another interpretation may emerge.
6. Significance (and reflexivity)
Finally, reflect on your Exemplarist Narrative Analysis so far. Your analysis should speak to your central research questions. The Project’s research questions include:
- Who do Gen Zers look up to for religious/spiritual guidance?
- What does this mean in terms of their understandings of religion/spirituality?
- How this might matter for young people, religious organisations, or wider society?
Don’t worry if your analysis doesn’t seem to provide straightforward answers to your research questions. The best analyses will uncover creative and insightful perspectives from the data (i.e., the stories) to answer the Project’s questions.
In the pilot study of the Gen Z Role Models Project, we identified five types of spiritual narrative across 131 submissions. These narrative-types capture distinct ways in which religion and spirituality are understood by the first smartphone generation. But those types (or cross-cutting themes) aren’t the only way to answer the Project’s central questions. So, how will you interpret these Gen Z stories?
A final note: as you reflect on significance, don’t be afraid to identify how your own biases and interests influence how you read the story. Being aware of your subjectivity (or positionality) is called reflexivity; and this is a strength in qualitative research. Just be transparent about your positionality when you explain the significance you find in a story or across stories.