Storied Lives
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The Cultural Politics of Self-Understanding
Edited by George C. Rosenwald and Richard L. Ochberg
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Format: ClothPrice: $64.00
In this provocative book, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists analyze interviews with a range of subjects—a minister who uses the death of his son to reaffirm his identity as a man of God, women who have given up their children at birth for adoption and who blame society for their action, Holocaust survivors, a victim of marital rape, and many others. Together these studies suggest a new way of thinking about autobiographical narratives: that these life stories play a significant role in the formation of identity, that the way they are told is shaped (and at times curtailed) by prevalent cultural norms, and that the stories—and at times the lives to which they relate—may be liberated from their psychic and social constraints if the social conditions of story telling can be critically engaged. Presenting a wide range of life stories, these studies demonstrate how "telling one's life" has the potential to clarify or mystify one's commitments and to animate or encumber one's future development.
"This volume will set the critical standard for the study of lives for at least the next decade. The contributions not only illustrate the immense potential of the interpretive approach in general, but also set the stage for significant advances in theory and method across numerous fields."—Robert Hogan, University of Tulsa
"Contributors address matters of identity, cultural politics, and critical awakenings through such diverse areas as work, afterlife, communication, race, and family relationships. A unique, thought-provoking compendium of human insight."—Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic
"Storied Lives contributes significantly to [the] growing field of narrative studies. . . . [The authors] provide succinct, engaging, and useful discussions of the pivotal problems in the field: the relation between story and life, story and subjectivity, story and cultural conventions, story and fiction and truth. . . . This is an outstanding collection organized by a strong argument for making the problem of the 'better story' central to the study of life narratives."—Susan E. Chase, Contemporary Sociology
"The stories people tell about themselves are interesting not only for the events and characters they describe but for something in the construction of the stories themselves. The ways in which individuals recount their histories—what they emphasize and omit, their stance as protagonists or victims, the relationship the story establishes between teller and audience—all shape what individuals can claim of their own lives. Personal stories are not merely a way of telling someone (or oneself) about one's life; they are the means by which identities may be fashioned."—from the Introduction
Publication Date: July 29, 1992
