Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I About Theories and Philosophies
- Part II About Self
- Chapter 2 Telling Tales About Lives
- Chapter 3 Who Tells What Kinds of Stories?
- Part III About Memory
- Part IV About Interpretation
- Part V About Self, Memory and Interpretation
- Appendix I Tables
- Appendix II Interview Documents
- References
Chapter 2 - Telling Tales About Lives
from Part II - About Self
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I About Theories and Philosophies
- Part II About Self
- Chapter 2 Telling Tales About Lives
- Chapter 3 Who Tells What Kinds of Stories?
- Part III About Memory
- Part IV About Interpretation
- Part V About Self, Memory and Interpretation
- Appendix I Tables
- Appendix II Interview Documents
- References
Summary
An image presented to us by life brings with it, in a single moment, sensations which are in fact multiple and heterogeneous.
Marcel Proust Time Regained in Remembrance of Things PastIndividuals, in their remembrance of things past, select segments from their lives, amplify a few events, narrate a few in a matter of fact manner, downplay some despite constant prodding and make up their life stories in the presence of the other. In the very act of textualization the self's relationship to lived experiences shifts and in this process individuals compose unique plots in their life stories and draw distinct characterological profile of themselves. As a researcher, I played an active role in generating narratives by way of framing questions and mediating the narrative flow. Furthermore, I selectively deploy analytical categories to interpret these narratives creating an intersection or perhaps a dialogization of autobiography (the account of person's life) and biography (the retelling of such an account by the other). Bakhtin (1990) argues that there is “no clear-cut, essentially necessary dividing line between autobiography and biography” (p. 150). Bakhtin does acknowledge that there is a difference and it might even be considerable, but in both biography and autobiography the I-for-myself is not the only organizing principle. Instead the image of the person is achieved in a triadic relationship between I-for-myself, I-for-others and others-for-me.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Dialogics of Self, the Mahabharata, and CultureThe History of Understanding and Understanding of History, pp. 39 - 90Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2010