[02 May 2007]
Jens Brockmeier
(Universities of Manitoba & East London)
and Tom Wengraf
(University of East London)
Mike Erben
The autobiographical process:
-memory, narrative and the self
Identity and Self:
* The self is already there, identity is constructed
* Identity construction:
-
is a process in time
-
is based on consciousness
-
we produce, we create, we construct it
-
is the situation of the self in time
-
we create our identity by our past, our memories, by the stories we tell about ourselves
* An autobiographical act is mixed together with other autobiogrphical acts.
* We often reencode memory in new contexts
* Autobiographical process is intermingled with other perceptual, cognitive and affective processes; and it is typically part of, or trigerred by, social interaction.
* Autobiographical process and narrative come from the same source
Narrative techniques and devices:
-
Switch between Fabula and Sjuzet
-
Switch between different levels of time
-
Switch between different mental stages
-
Switch between different narrative perspectives/voices
-
Switch between foreground and background
-
Switch between individual and cultural memory
-
tropes:
-
metaphors
-
metonomies
-
similies, comparsons
-
pictures
Biography and Research Methods
* A full biography is not feasable, what we have are fragments of life
Theoretical perspectives:
-
The Philosophical
-
The sociological
-
The Psychoanalitic
Practical activities:
-
Creating the data
-
Imagination and the data
-
The data
* Self definitions
* Most of our data must be reconstructed by imagination
* Comprehensive mode of inquiry
Section in a book:
Nostalgia and Autobiogfraphy: the past in the present, in Auto/Biography (2006) vol. 14
* Nostalgia as a sense of lost of a positive past
[Emerged from audience’s questions]
-
Interpreting your data through good faith is a moral act
-
A good description is an explanation
-
A good description is blended with interpretation