ABSTRACT
Social being is accomplished through many forms of social interaction, of which the word is particularly pivotal. To gain an understanding of how such social being is accomplished and how social identities are constructed it is essential to enter into the lives of social actors. Historical autobiography, the recorded word through which some social actors have themselves attempted this return journey into their own experience, as a way of turning towards others, is a particularly rich ground for our own journey of discovery and of reaching out. This hermeneutics of autobiography is particularly important in the study of ethnicized and racialized relations, and in developing and promoting a sophisticated understanding of citizenship in a plural society.
