Qualitative_data_analysis

WHAT IS QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS? 35
conflicts with the father (the giant in the story), leads finally to development as a
mature and independent human being. Considered as a symbolic representation of
the problems a child must solve on the road to maturity, each detail of the story
acquires another meaning. Jack steals successively a bag of gold, a hen that lays
golden eggs, and a golden harp. Each represents a higher stage in development—the
harp for example symbolizing progress from material to aesthetic concerns. (I
hesitate to suggest a symbolic meaning for the climax of the story, when Jack cuts
down the beanstalk.)
Such meanings need not—indeed, Bettelheim argues, must not—be explicit for
the child to absorb the underlying message of this and other fairy-tales. Advertising
is another medium in which the symbolic character of communication may be more
significant than the explicit content of the message. In this case, the ‘hidden’
message may be intentional: the advertiser deliberately plays upon our identification
with certain characters, or the positive associations invoked by particular images.
Here, contexts are consciously designed to evoke multiple meanings. But in general,
communication occurs in a variety of indeterminate contexts, and multiple
meanings remain implicit rather than explicit. Feminism has made us acutely aware,
for example, of the meanings implicit in communication considered in the context
of gender. Apparently ‘innocent’ language—such as the preferential use of the
masculine pronoun ‘he’—conveys a meaning which only becomes evident when the
context of gender is rendered explicit through criticism.
This situation may seem unsatisfactory, since it makes meaning contingent on
how we choose to observe it. By shifting contexts, we can undermine or alter the
original or intended import of a communication. For example, take the following
sign at the entrance to a Bangkok temple: ‘It is forbidden to enter a woman even a
foreigner if dressed as a man.’ Despite the lack of grammar, it is obvious that this
means that women-even if they are foreigners and dressed as men—are forbidden to
enter the temple. If we shift from a religious to a sexual context, however, we can
introduce a new and more humorous interpretation, in which it is women rather
than temples we are forbidden to enter. Is this new interpretation a
misinterpretation? Yes—if we were foolish enough attribute this meaning to the
sign-writer. No—if we attribute it to the reader. This new interpretation is not
‘wrong’ even though it does not coincide with the meaning intended by the signwriter.
It is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate interpretation; and indeed, we may
imagine a (male) traveller, oblivious of the religious context, understanding (if not
acting upon) the sign in just this way!
Communication of meaning is an action which requires—at a minimum —
#8212;both an initiator and a receiver, and neither has a monopoly on the meaning
of what passes between them. The contexts of initiator and receiver are both