personal histories |
Working Definition:
A personal history is an individuals recollection of the events of his or her own life as well as the events included before it. It is an idiosyncratic view of what happened in the world before and during one’s lifetime. (see also autobiographic stories)
Disciplinary Definitions:
Herman, Story Logic, 2003, 164 on Bruner's view that stories "can be cobbled together to form a "culture," "history," or "tradition."
Another term for "personal history" is "life story." See McAdams Stories We Live By and Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Silber, Narrative Research: Reading, Analysis, and Interpretation, on Narrative Research.
Comments:
Although the term "life story" and the method of "life story interviews" is used extensively in psychological studies, I use the term "personal history" to link a life story to the story of the world as it is stored in the memory systems of persons.
A personal history is the narrative a person would tell in response to a question such as “what happened in World War II?” On the one hand, the person to whom the question is directed may be able to respond with anecdotes or stories about his role in that war. On the other hand, he or she may have to report the virtual experiences that are stored in his or her memory systems. In the later case, the virtual experiences are just as much a part of the personal history of a person as actual experiences. In many cases, actual and virtual expriences are merged in personal histories.
Given the current accounts of our memory stores, personal histories are likely to be “scripted,” that is, likely to rely on the same narrative structures that are used in simulating situations in everyday life. In other words, the activity of forming a personal history is configural, that is, depends upon transpositions of scripts.
Notes
Check:
jjs
TO RETURN TO READING, CLICK "BACK" ON YOUR BROWSER MENU.
last revised:
June 13, 2007
Send comments to jjs.
copyright © jjs, 2007