Image - narration - context

Narratives are primary agents in the production of social meaning and identity. They are articulated not only in oral and literal forms of expression, but also through images and artefacts. By virtue of their materiality, these objects bearing narrative potential have their specifi c contexts of appreciation. But how do images actually trigger narration? Can we describe the social loci of their observation? And how do these contexts – social practices, religious rituals, demonstrations of political power – interact with, and reaffect the artefacts in question? Both case studies from archaeology and approaches from a wider range of cultural studies seek to answer these questions within a broader methodological framework.