The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach

Abstract

This article argues for reconfiguring the study of identity formation through the concept of narrative. It is motivated by two recent but seemingly unrelated developments in social theory and society. One is the emergence of a widespread "identity politics" and a concomitant scholarly focus on the "social construction of identity." The other is the reconfigured approach to the concept of narrative that researchers from many disciplines have been formulating in recent years. Both are important developments not to be overlooked by social scientigts and social theorists; both, however, have problems and limitations as they now stand. I argue in this article that the limitations of each potentially can be overcome by bringing the two thematics together. The key concept I propose to achieve this reconfiguration is that of narrative identity. Studies of identity formation have made major contributions to our understanding of social agency. A recurring problem, however, has been a perhaps inadvertent tendency to conflate identities with what can often slide into fixed "essentialist" (pre-political) singular categories, such as those of race, sex, or gender-a direction that has characterized a number of feminist theories in their efforts to restore the previously marginalized female other. 1 Anthropological studies of different cultures have been been used to avoid this danger. 2 But, law professor Patricia Williams reminds us that we do not have to resort to cultural others to recognize the false certainties imposed by categorical approaches to identity: While being black has been the powerful social attribution in my life, it is only one of a number of governing narratives or presiding fictions by which I am constantly reconfiguring myself in the world. Gender is another, along with ecology, pacifism, my peculiar brand of colloquial English, and Roxbury, Massachusetts. The complexity of role identification, the politics of sexuality, the inflections of professionalized discourse-all describe and impose

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