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Life histories and the perspective of the present
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References
2004
Year
Human ConditionNarrative And IdentityPhilosophy Of HistoryContemporary CultureSocial SciencesHistory (Virtual Reality Research)ExistentialismPersonal IdentityNarrative Studies (Narrative Psychology)Cultural HistoryLanguage StudiesIntellectual HistoryGeorge Herbert MeadLife HistoryPaul RicoeurHistory (African Historiography)Life WritingLiterary HistoryHumanitiesNarrative Studies (Comparative Literature)AnthropologyLife HistoriesLived ExperienceModernity
The purpose of the article is to suggest a development of the narrative life history tradition along the lines represented by George Herbert Mead and Paul Ricoeur. This theoretical approach is presented as an alternative to both subjectivist approaches, that continue the search for the solitary, true self behind the life histories, and to structuralist approaches, in which the self and its past experience disappears. In the article a theoretical framework is sketched that a) focuses on “the perspective of the present” but does not lose sight of the past, and b) emphasizes the interactionist dimensions of life histories but also pays attention to the self and its ongoing projects. The reasonings of Mead and Ricoeur are applied to a series of empirical examples, drawn from different areas of life history research. (Time, Narrative, Emplotment, Life Histories, Self, Mead, Ricoeur)