Reciting the Self: Narrative Representations of the Self in Qualitative Interviews

In: Feminist theory: an international interdisciplinary journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, p. 29-49

Abstract

Drawing on accounts from interviews with white women, this article explores the production of narratives of the self. It suggests that the story produced of the self is not inevitable and may revolve around notions of sameness and difference that, in turn, depend on the positionality of individuals in terms of normative discourses of `race', class and gender. Sally can be seen to be reciting the process of subjection in the way she creates herself as the subject of a narrative, using tropes of difference and sameness to explain who she is and who she is not. However, for the others, the norms and conventions of lifestory do not conform with their experiences of subjection. This is because, in the case of Madeleine, she does not experience an easily retold sense of herself, while Deborah appears to want to present herself as so inevitable and conforming to dominant norms that there is no story to tell.