Small stories with big implications::identity, relationality and aesthetics in accounts of enigmatic communication

In this paper we examine reports of poetic confluence, in which one person’s utterances seems to connect with another; unspoken or unarticulated thoughts. We argue that analysis of these narratives can be investigated as a window onto social reality, and as a site in which social realities are produced, especially with respect to identity work. We show how this approach complements and develops from the small story paradigm in narrative inquiry. In our discussion we try to identify common principles that may underpin work on both the content of poetic confluence narratives, and the work done in the features of those narratives.