Multiplicity and Conflict in the Dialogical Self: A Life-Narrative Approach.

Abstract

The telling of a definitive life story presents some serious dilemmas (Bruner & Kalmar, 1998;Freeman, 1993). Can one's narrative identity be captured in a single, grand, synthesizing story? Consider your own response to a request to "tell your life story." Taken seriously, the question might prove impossible to answer satisfactorily. Part of the problem is in the singularity and finality of the phrase your life story-as if there could be a definitive account. The phrase presupposes a narrative that is linear, integrated, and coherent, with all the facts about your life neatly tied together with a golden thread, a single narrative voice. I think this assumption is problematic. A reasonable retort such as, "Which life story would you like to hear?"-or even the thought, "Of which self should I speak?"-are suppressed or circumscribed in the phrase your life story. The story you tell will probably be but one story from a number of possibilities, and therefore the life story could never be encompassed by a monologue. In what follows Thanks to Amanda Middleton and to "Charles," who willingly gave up his time and his stories. The

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