Musings: Orchestrating Life Narratives

It seems to me that when people think about who they are and what they’ve done, they often tend to compartmentalize. Of course there are times when this is appropriate, but too often this tactic masks synergistic relationships among the parts that are awaiting discovery. By connecting the dots, so to speak, and bringing into relation disparate elements, individuals may change the way they see themselves and at the same time recharge the set of skills on which they draw in their personal and professional lives. To put it another way, they could expand their repertoires.

I’m particularly interested in the implications such a relational approach has for the production of autobiographical and biographical texts, and I wonder how this model, when applied, affects the work of human memory. In my own case, whether I’m creating a self-portrait or portraying someone else, I like to orchestrate dynamic compositions.

Technorati tags: autobiography, biography, memoir