Narrative necessity and the fixity of meaning in a life

Andrea C. Westlund | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

This paper raises doubts about the necessity of narrative to selfhood or unified agency, but suggests that there may nonetheless be an important role for autobiographical narrative in (provisionally) fixing the meaning of events, actions, and experiences within a life.

Keywords: trajectory dependence, narrative necessity, autobiography, self, narrative, autonomy, agency

Published online: 05 January 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.21.2.19wes

Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

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2017. Narrative and embodiment – a scalar approach. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 16:5 ► pp. 893 ff.

Køster, Allan

2017. Narrative self-appropriation: embodiment, alienness, and personal responsibility in the context of borderline personality disorder. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 38:6 ► pp. 465 ff.

Meyers, Diana Tietjens

2014. Corporeal selfhood, self-interpretation, and narrative selfhood. Philosophical Explorations 17:2 ► pp. 141 ff.

Meyers, Diana Tietjens

2018. Victims' Stories of Human Rights Abuse: The Ethics of Ownership, Dissemination, and Reception. Metaphilosophy 49:1-2 ► pp. 40 ff.

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