Personal Narratives in Life History Research

In this article I discuss how to create personal narratives in life history research methodology. People tell stories of their lives, and the researchers make these stories into life histories. Based on theoretical perspectives on discourse inspired by Michel Foucault, narratives are seen as ways of positioning oneself as a subject—both by the teller and the researcher. Here, five different positions are presented. According to Reissman (2003 Riessman, C. K. (2003). Analysis of personal narratives. In James A. Holstein & Jaber F. Gubrium (Eds.), Inside interviewing. New Lenses, New Concerns (pp. 331–347). London: Sage Publications Ltd. [Google Scholar]), narratives have three main forms: The narrative of a whole life, like a novel; topic or thematic narratives, like fairy tales; and narratives of turning points in life, like short stories in a book. In the article all these narrative forms are presented in the history of Per, a man classified as “mentally retarded.”