Discourse, Culture, and Extraordinary Experiences: Observations from a Comparative, Qualitative Analysis of Japanese and UK English Accounts of Paranormal Phenomena

Abstract

This article examines communicative practices in Japanese and UK English accounts of extraordinary experiences. We compare the way in which specific narrative features are handled: description of the actual experience, and the completion of the narrative. We also examine some ways in which the accounts are rhetorically designed to address skeptical alternatives. The perspective is informed by an ethnomethodological focus on communicative competences in description. This comparison identifies differences between Japanese and UK English narratives. This focus on interactional features of the data is contrasted to macro cultural or psychological perspectives on the relationship between national culture and language.

Keywords:

• Communicative Competences
• Epistemics
• Japanese
• Paranormal
• UK English

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Japanese interviewees who reported their paranormal experiences. They also thank the School of Psychological Practices at Shukutoku University for providing the first author with the period of research leave during which time the work reported here was undertaken. Finally, they would like to thank Bill Eadie and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yasushi Ohashi

Yasushi Ohashi is Professor of Psychology at Shukutoku University, Japan.

Robin Wooffitt

Robin Wooffitt is Professor of Sociology at University of York, UK.

Clare Jackson

Clare Jackson is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sociology at University of York, UK.

Yumi Nixon

Yumi Nixon is Japanese Language Tutor at University of York, UK.