ABSTRACT
Through stories we relate our lives to ourselves and others, we attempt to make sense of our experiences and give an account of who we are. For example, when we meet a stranger, perhaps on a long train journey or at a party, we tell stories to say who we are, both to our own self and the other person: about where we are from, what we are doing now and what we will be doing. From the endless incidents and experiences, thoughts and feelings of our lives, we make and remake accounts; through stories we sequence and give meaning to the remembered elements of our past (see Gergen and Gergen, 1984). The shaping of the past, the concerns of the present and the anticipation of the future are intimately related (Mead, 1956, pp. 328-41; Sartre, 1968, pp. 100-9; Schutz, 1971, pp. 214-17). By retrospection (and prospection) stories are constructed; at the most general, one story may summarize our life with a major theme of escape; journey; disappointment; or contentment. There are also subsidiary stories that are distinctive but are usually still connected to other stories we retell. These various stories may well coincide with particular episodes in life or a chronological span (e.g. parts of family, schooling and work life) (Denzin, 1989, pp. 41-43). These subsidiary stories are told and revised according to the situation, new experiences or prospects. Here, we are applying ‘story’ quite loosely to denote the attempt to write or tell about experience, to ourselves and others-according to some sequence or order containing incidents, persons and responses rather than as a simple, consistent account with a start, beginning and end. In practice, life stories are to some extent provisional and often contain uncertain and even contradictory elements. It is tempting to see such stories as ‘personal myths’ (see Hankiss, 1981; Peneff, 1990; Samuel and Thompson, 1990); as neither true nor false expressions of experience but, instead, attempts to explain or make sense of the past and our part in it, and how we have become what we believe we want to be.
