ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the different epistemological stances and the methodological frameworks incorporating them. It considers different styles and forms of written reports about human existence deriving from participant observation, along with various exceedingly complex issues associating with these representations of the facts. All representations of human existence likewise are interpretative constructions of the author’s subjectivity and whatever unavoidably limited social and cultural perspectives are employed to display them. “Realist tales,” as the name specifies, are representations intended as an authentic description of reality. When facts are held to be interpretative constructs, as with methodological humanism, the resulting representations of those facts are deemed to be an interpretative reconstruction of the reality of the thoughts, feelings, and activities of human beings in everyday life. “Impressionist tales” also are a more likely representational form when facts are viewed as interpretative construction of the researcher.
