The Narrative Construction of the Community

Abstract

Every one of us constitutes the center of a cycle of narratives that are publicly recalled as memories—and some of them collectively, over time—in familiar friendly settings. The principal character in these narratives is we and/or some familiar persons, depending on the degree to which we identify with them. In this narrative universe (of life or family stories) we are protagonists, and these stories constitute a minimum available repertoire for each of us, either as individuals or as families, even when we don’t know any tales of general interest. If others can join us in this emotional or symbolic identification, our stories become collective “property” and begin to concern our wider social circle for as long as this identification remains meaningful (cf. Halbwachs 1992: 54–83). This is a way to mythicize, recall, and finally share our personal historic time: we turn into “history” ourselves. The procedure is easily understood when one gets children or grandchildren (cf. Thompson 2000: 2–3).