It is pretty much axiomatic among contemporary thinkers (secular and theological) to use the category of narrative in relation to the self - as a way of understanding or interpreting the self. Ricoeur, Taylor, Benhabib, Giddens, Hauerwas: even Hannah Arendt was using this idea in the 1950s. The value of this perspective lies in the way in which you can analyse a self as a body and not just a mind, as an individual-in-relation and not an individual-in-isolation, and a person in time and history and not a person somehow standing aloof to the conditions and passing of time. Time, body, mind, action, others.
But what does it mean to 'self-narrate', or to see oneself in terms of a narrated life? It is both a hermeneutical and an ethical response to the question posed by existence. Telling your story both interprets the events that have already happened and plots a trajectory into the future. 'Narrating' means 'ascribing some form or meaning to a series of events'.
One responds to the events of one's life as a sequence of cause and effect, as an emplotment (Ricoeur's term). One chooses subsequent attitudes and actions in keeping with the pattern that emerges over time (perhaps) or in response to some deeply held intuition about what should happen next. One plays a role as a character in relation to other characters, as an actor situated next to other actors ('neighbours' even). So, we might ask, what genre is my life? Tragic? Comic? Epic? Romance? Fairy Story? Absurdist Drama?
Seeing life in narrative terms can factor in things outside our control that are crucial to who we are: our gender, our national indentities, our accidents, our historical circumstances. The thing about a narrative is that it is like DNA: no narrative is completely the same as another's, though it may resemble it in type. It is a great way to identify someone.
It is interesting to think about biography and autobiography here. Both of these never quite contain the actual narrative of the person, do they? Autobiography - the telling of one's own tale - is so often an exercise in self-deception, or in choosing the wrong genre. And the problem is that it is always a tale half-told, because your death is not included! To include the manner of dying seems to be essential to the genre of the story.
Is it ever possible to tell the truth about oneself?
8 comments:
I never tell the truth about myself.
what even now?
Working on Revelation 2 recently I came across the promise of a new name Jesus gives in v17 to those who conquer. The name is secret now, and will only be known then by Jesus and the one who conquers. This would seem to say we don't know our own name yet but it is known by God. He knows us better than the parents who hoped the name was right, better than we know ourselves, better than others who try to name us. There is a long biblical history of God re-naming his people, but here the promise is to all Christians. If narrative is the model for expressing the self, what name do you give the protagonist?
Michael K
Ah that is a really interesting passage... and the idea of naming, too. And biblical names often express something of the character and destiny of the person so named of course...
I don't mean here that narrative is about self-expression (although it might be)... more it is a conceptual framework for articulating what selfhood might mean... Names of course are given, only rarely taken.
what about the self as phenomenon... and is the horizon the narration in which one inserts oneself? Which is prior? Is there a 'given' self?
Is there a difference between telling the truth about oneself, and telling the truth about one's world? Or are they related, or are they the same question?
It's a Katay thing to talk about sinning in a narrative but I find it really helpful - that your sin falls in a story that includes repentance and restoration. The narrative approach to your life and others' is that it always leaves space for redemption...
well maybe time, rather than space...?
for an interesting exploration of narrating yourself, read Paul Auster's book "Travels in the Sriptorium" - it should be published in october in the UK by Faber, but you might be able to get your hands on a copy before then...
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