While a narrative approach to the construction of identity opens up quite “naturally” to the question of who I am in time, i.e. to a temporal order, it is inclined to neglect the question of who I am part of, i.e. of belonging. This essay argues that the adherence to a plurality of social worlds provides the teller with options of self-positioning in his or her self-narratives. Even within the confinement of a limited story world a whole variety of self-positions is regularly evoked. Social exclusion, on the other hand, can be described in positioning theory as the experience of other positioning, of being positioned by dominant others. Other positioning endangers the possibility of narrating oneself as an agent in one’s own self-stories and consequently obstructs the process of identity construction. This raises the question how individuals manage to maintain the dynamics of self-positioning in self stories, which are largely shaped by the experience of social exclusion. To answer this question, Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopias as used by Kevin Hetherington is discussed as the conceptualization of a – real – social world, which is related to the dominant social order in an ambivalent way. Heterotopias offer the experience of a third space, beyond the binary logics of an “either-or” or “in-out” and thus allow for the development of self-positions beyond these oppositions. Two empirical examples of heterotopic self-positioning are presented. The characteristics of these narratives are discussed.
2024. A Thrice-Told Tale of Japanese Staffrooms and a Transformative Journey in Searching for East Asia as Method. ECNU Review of Education 7:3 ► pp. 618 ff.
Wragg, Jason
2022. Heroes and Pilgrims: An Autoethnographic exploration of adventure motorcycle travel
. Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft 14:3 ► pp. 351 ff.
Yodovich, Neta
2022. Being a Feminist Fan. In Women Negotiating Feminism and Science Fiction Fandom [Palgrave Fan Studies, ], ► pp. 69 ff.
Rossolatos, George
2020. A Brand Storytelling Approach to COVID-19’s Terrorealization: Cartographing the Emergent Hyperspace of a Global Pandemic. SSRN Electronic Journal
2015. The Self-Other Positioning of International Students in the Japanese University English Language Classroom. In Transcultural Interaction and Linguistic Diversity in Higher Education, ► pp. 188 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 september 2024. 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.