Suchergebnisse

Abstract
In this essay, I aim to shore up the epistemological foundations of memory studies so that it can more
productively fulfill its promise to understand the dynamics of shared meaning-making. I argue for theoretical and, hence,
methodological, advancement toward a more precise vocabulary for describing the movement of meaning over time and space and
between persons as they engage with resources and each other in order to fix and revise shared interpretations. Drawing on the
conceptual vocabulary of narrative, I describe some of the central tenets of this "back to the phenomenon" approach to social
memory.

In this article, I outline what are, in my view, the major conceptual and institutional weaknesses of narrative psychology. However, because my objective is to legitimatize narrative as an alternative vision of psychology, I frame these criticisms as challenges for narrative psychologists to overcome. I argue that narrative psychology has not clearly defined the meaning, scope and basic principles of a narrative approach. I ask: What does narrative mean? Is narrative ethnocentric? Is narrative a science? Can narrative reconcile with the mainstream without losing its critical spirit? Can narrative survive in the academy? Although the challenges are significant, I argue that narrative psychology offers the promise of a systematic form of inquiry that explores meaning and intention in human lives. Narrative research promises to bring us closer to the real subject matter of psychological investigation, that of human intention and meaning, in its appropriate interpretive context.

Life and Narrative examines the perennial mystery of how people encounter, manage, and inhabit a self and a world of their own - and others' - creation and the ramifications of these creations. From both literary and social science perspectives, this volume grapples with the process of how life and narrative interact with each other.

In this article, we study the oral history interviews of eight survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau. We give a detailed analysis of a central narrative in their life story, the "selection narrative," the experience of being forcibly separated from family into groups for labor or death, as it is told in the late 1970s-to-early 1980s and again in the 1990s. We study patterns of structure and variation in the referential aspects of narrative, how narratives recapitulate past actions, and the evaluative aspects of narrative, how narratives are interpreted. Our analysis of these eight sets of repeated narratives focuses on four processes that help structure consistent accounts over time: the past, previous tellings, culture and the interview situation. In each set of repeated narratives, the selection narrative maintains significant portions of the complicating action and evaluations over time. At the same time, various changes are evident that alter the style or interpretation of the narrative. In other words, changes were, in large measure, observed in "how" or "why" the narrative was told but not in "what" was recounted. Our data suggests that despite changes in context, critical aspects of our identities endure over long periods of time.