Russian Linguistic Bulletin (Jun 2019)
AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS ARTISTIC FICTION
Abstract
Autocommunication between the narrator and the subject's model - the image of themselves - in the space of a narrative turns into artistic fiction. Through aesthetic judgment, the model becomes a character of the story, and its author is the creator of their life. The embodiment of experience in the form of a narrative makes it possible to comprehend it in the interpersonal sphere. Here, a dialogical turn of co-being comes to the fore including the one who understands the speech in other contexts. If one takes the view that the narrative constructs reality, then the technology of the narrative can be designated as dialogization of the situation: inclusion of others, considering the positions of these others, their experiences and the correlation of all these points with each other. Thus the text is created. As a structure representing reality, the narrative scheme is a dramaturgic model of a certain sphere of life. Life, in this sense, is as much a product of imagination as the story of it. The narration imitates life, and life imitates the narrative. It is created by people in the process of searching for interpretations of selected events. The story of one's life is almost always a cognitive action, rather than an artless presentation of something unambiguously given. Ultimately, this is a narrative action. From a psychological point of view, there is no such a thing as “life in itself”. At least, it is the result of selective work of memory; the rest of the narrative of one's life is an art of imagination and interpretation.
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