This chapter proposes a new way of theorizing counter-narratives on the
basis of a dialogical conception of narrative, identity, and
subjectivity. Narratives take shape in a dialogical relation to
culturally mediated narrative models of sense-making, which are
inextricably entangled in relations of power. While culturally dominant
narrative models can be construed as master narratives,
counter-narratives challenge such dominant models. Acknowledging the
dialogical interplay between narrative models and individuals allows us
to avoid reification of narratives, to theoretically explain their
relationality and intrinsic contestability, and to account for both
agency and its socially conditioned nature. This chapter provides a
theoretical-analytic framework that addresses the existential-ethical
significance of counter-narratives and situates them in relation to
narrative agency – as actions of interpretative agents negotiating their
sense of self vis-à-vis culturally mediated narrative models. The
chapter clarifies the ontology of master and counter-narratives through
the distinction between implicit and explicit narratives and through the
notion of narrative assumption. While implicit narratives function as
models of sense-making that guide our actions and expectations, explicit
narratives have a concrete, textual, material form. Both master and
counter-narratives exert their power only when they are interpreted in
concrete situations, and this interpretative process is a fundamentally
dialogical activity.