Experienced Life and Narrated Life Story
Gestalt and Structure of Biographical Self-Presentations
New edition
9783593518862
Distributed for Campus Verlag
Experienced Life and Narrated Life Story
Gestalt and Structure of Biographical Self-Presentations
New edition
A new edition of sociologist Gabriele Rosenthal’s classic 1995 work on phenomenology and Gestalt theory.
How do people narrate events in their life stories and the history of their family or families? How are narratives and experiences in the present related to experiences and narratives in the past? In this foundational work by sociologist Gabriele Rosenthal, he answers these questions with a theoretical and empirical study of the interconnections between remembering, experiencing, and presenting what was experienced at different points of the life course and of the associated collective histories. He also discusses rules for conducting interviews that support processes of remembering and for carrying out an analysis that does justice to this dialectic.
This edition contains a new introduction and a new chapter that explores the later expansion of Rosenthal’s approach to sociological biographical research, reflecting the inspiration she took from the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias. With its analysis of the complex relationships between experiencing, remembering, and presenting, Experienced Life and Narrated Life Story makes an important contribution to the theoretical foundations of biographical research.
How do people narrate events in their life stories and the history of their family or families? How are narratives and experiences in the present related to experiences and narratives in the past? In this foundational work by sociologist Gabriele Rosenthal, he answers these questions with a theoretical and empirical study of the interconnections between remembering, experiencing, and presenting what was experienced at different points of the life course and of the associated collective histories. He also discusses rules for conducting interviews that support processes of remembering and for carrying out an analysis that does justice to this dialectic.
This edition contains a new introduction and a new chapter that explores the later expansion of Rosenthal’s approach to sociological biographical research, reflecting the inspiration she took from the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias. With its analysis of the complex relationships between experiencing, remembering, and presenting, Experienced Life and Narrated Life Story makes an important contribution to the theoretical foundations of biographical research.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface to the new edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Preliminary note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.1 Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.2 What is the “benefit” of applying Gestalt theory to life stories
and life histories? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2. On the Gestalt nature of experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1 That which is presented to the observer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2 The intention of the agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.3 The formal organization of what is presented . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3. On the Gestalt nature of memory and narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.1 Experience – Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.2 Memory – Narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4. On the Gestalt of narrated life stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.1 Biographical preconditions for shaping a life narrative
as a Gestalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.2 The simple grasping of orderedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.3 Orderedness after biographical turning points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.4 Formal factors for Gestalt connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5. The healing effect of biographical narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
5.1 The ambiguous Gestalt of the experienced life history . . . . . . . . . 161
5.2 The healing effect of life narratives for survivors of the Shoah . . 166
6. Methodological implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
6.1 Principles of interviewing to obtain a biographical narrative . . 179
6.2 Principles of a reconstructive case analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
7. Biographies – Discourses – Figurations: Social-constructivist and
figurational biographical research
Artur Bogner & Gabriele Rosenthal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
7.2 Commonalities and differences between biographical research
and figurational sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
7.3 Discourses as an intermediary element? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.4 Voices of established and outsiders in Palestine and Uganda . . 242
7.5 Conclusion: methodological consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Transcription symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Criteria to define the sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Preface to the new edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Preliminary note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.1 Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1.2 What is the “benefit” of applying Gestalt theory to life stories
and life histories? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2. On the Gestalt nature of experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1 That which is presented to the observer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2 The intention of the agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.3 The formal organization of what is presented . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3. On the Gestalt nature of memory and narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.1 Experience – Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.2 Memory – Narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4. On the Gestalt of narrated life stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.1 Biographical preconditions for shaping a life narrative
as a Gestalt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.2 The simple grasping of orderedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.3 Orderedness after biographical turning points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.4 Formal factors for Gestalt connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5. The healing effect of biographical narration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
5.1 The ambiguous Gestalt of the experienced life history . . . . . . . . . 161
5.2 The healing effect of life narratives for survivors of the Shoah . . 166
6. Methodological implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
6.1 Principles of interviewing to obtain a biographical narrative . . 179
6.2 Principles of a reconstructive case analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
7. Biographies – Discourses – Figurations: Social-constructivist and
figurational biographical research
Artur Bogner & Gabriele Rosenthal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
7.2 Commonalities and differences between biographical research
and figurational sociology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
7.3 Discourses as an intermediary element? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
7.4 Voices of established and outsiders in Palestine and Uganda . . 242
7.5 Conclusion: methodological consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Transcription symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Criteria to define the sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257