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
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.21.2.19wes
Cited by
Cited by 5 other publications
Kelleher, William
2020. Digital media, the body and agency in a South African education institution from the perspective of narrative research.
The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa 16:1 
Køster, Allan
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.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.