Questions about identity are perennially intriguing, and vexing, to scholars and non-scholars alike. How do we know who we are? How do we define ourselves? How much are we the agents of our own identities, and how much are we defined by others? In The Co-authored Self, Kate McLean addresses the question of how an individual comes to develop an identity by focusing on the process of interpersonal storytelling, particularly through the stories people hear, co-tell, and share of and with their families. McLean details how identity development is a collaborative construction between the individual and his or her narrative ecology. She argues that family stories play a powerful role in defining identities, for better or for worse; it is through these family stories that the self takes on its earliest and most lasting form. Situating the process of identity development in adolescence and emerging adulthood, she shows through quantitative and qualitative data-with compelling narrative excerpts throughout-the ways in which families both support and constrain identity development by the stories they tell.

Autorentext

Kate C. McLean, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Western Washington University. Her research centers on the development of narrative identity in adolescence and emerging adulthood, particularly as it develops in social contexts, and as it relates to individual differences in personality and adjustment.

Inhalt

Chapter One: Building the Narrative Ecology Section 1 Setting the Stage Chapter Two. Developmental Considerations Chapter Three. Theoretical Approaches to Identity Development and the Power of Narrative Section 2 Master Narratives and Personal Narratives: The Stories our Families Tell About Us Chapter Four. Two Storied Paths to Identity Integration Chapter Five. Resisting Stories Section 3 Broadening the Narrative Ecology: Another Story, An Other's Story Chapter Six. Parents are People: Parent's Identities Chapter Seven. Parents' stories: Children's Identities Section 4 Broader Contexts of Storytelling: Gender and Peers Chapter Eight. The Gendered Socialization of Narrative and Identity Chapter Nine. Peers and Family Stories Section 5 Conclusion Chapter Ten: The End of the Story, for now Appendix: Methodological Issues References About the Author Index