Morphology of the Folk Tales as a Method for Analysis

Re-formulated problem statement

It is time to look at this problem from a different perspective. It is time to admit that female suicide bombing is a separate issue and cannot be addressed by “universal” methods. Practitioners can use several different ways to analyze terrorism and women to understanding their condition and motivations.
One of the options is to use a narrative analysis to determine individualized key points of the story with consideration of culture. The narrative analysis has the ability to look deeper into the meaning of the words, so as to emphasize culture in its thick description, without universalization or westernization. J. Bruner in his book, “Act of Meaning”, described the notion of “folk psychology” which “...summarized not simply how things are, but how they should be” (p.40). Many researchers present “how things are”, but fail to present how these women think things should be. Muslim women as martyrs are poorly understood; they are suffering from the loss of significant people such as family members, and they reside in a specific culture with social instability. My essay will examine how narrative analysis can be used in identifying “should be” themes and key points, which could be addressed while studying female suicidal terrorism.
Discussion
To illuminate this methodology, I chose to analyze the diary of Zulikhan Elihadzhieva, a Chechen woman who committed a suicidal attack in July 5, 2003. While reading, I tried to apply some techniques of structural narrative analysis that might fit for this text. Initially, my intent was to use the L. White & A. Taket Narrative Analysis Method. However, in the process of analyzing the diary, I had a strong sense that the story had a plot similar to ...

... middle of paper ...

...d by pretending that he cared, sent her to die. In this story, we see a cold-blooded terrorist who used Zulikhan as a weapon.
Therefore, instead of looking only into national traditions and mental well-being, we have to consider that there is always a third party. Sometimes the third party could be a religious leader; sometimes the third party could be a friend. These third parties might use any weaknesses to become a hero in his or her own eyes, even though they are playing with human lives to promote their own ideas about fairness.
I combined four genres of literature with Propp’s eight characters to make sense out of the mayhem. This is revealing that depending on situation, a real life person might be acting out his own personal melodrama and think himself a hero, or a prize. Others might see him to be the exact opposite: a false hero, or a villain.