Storied Lives: The Cultural Politics of Self-Understanding Review

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(More customer reviews)In an age when "narrative" looms so large in academic discourse - its construction and its consequences - this collection was one of the first to view the function of life retelling in a complex and original way. The essays are diverse. But, before anything else, they are readable. Concepts which have so often become obscured beyond comprehension are entirely clear here. And they are anchored in lives and life circumstances across a wide and informative range.
This is a foundational collection.

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In this provocative book, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists analyze interviews with a range of subjects (a minister, Holocaust survivors, a rape victim, and others) to present a new way of thinking about autobiographical narratives.They argue that these narratives play a significant role in the formation of identity, that the way they are told is shaped by prevalent cultural norms, and that the stories may be liberated from the psychic and social obstacles constraining them if the narrators gain critical insight into their own accounts.