Between constitution and interpretation: Identity as history

Abstract

The paper focuses on the possibilities to constitute meaning in the „borderline- situations“ (Jaspers) of the social sphere, such as the loss of validity of orientation within and experience of reality in the socially shared structures of the lifeworld. On the one hand, I will refer to A. Schutz’ and his constitution-analysis of foreign understanding and of shared meaning; on the other hand, I bear onto I. Kertész literary project to narrate the biography of an Auschwitz-survivor as close to his experiential perspective as possible. I will focus both on the concept of constitution and of interpretation with respect to their enabling of the transcending of a typologized everyday’s world which suppresses subjective meaning and its individual articulation. The main guideline is the problem how identity – i.e. a life-story – is configured out of subjective meaning without recourse to everyday reality. A. Schutz’s and Th. Luckmann’s note on a range of social transcendences and on biographical categories referring to the constitution of a socially shared meaning offer a theoretical perspective for dealing with constitutive differences within the reach of understanding social meaning; Kertész’ narrative mode expandes this theoretical stance as it problematizes exemplary subjective experience.

Keywords

• Hermeneutic Phenomenology
• constitution of meaning
• narrative identity
• Alfred Schutz
• Imre Kertész