Narrative Identity

Narrative identity refers to the stories humans construct to tell about themselves in order to understand who they are for themselves and for others. Beginning in adolescence and young adulthood, narrative identities are often understood as lived, internalized, and evolving stories humans live by. The idea that humans create identity through constructing stories about their lives has emerged as an integrative conception in various fields, especially philosophy and psychology. For some time now, scholars in theology and religious studies have also used narrative approach to study how humans tell and live stories in close interaction with the stories of a religious tradition.

Philosophical Understanding of Narrative Identity

Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) is a highly influential philosopher who developed theories of narrative identity, claiming that self comes into being only in the processing of telling a life story (Ricoeur 1986). He argues against essentialist understanding of human...