Review: Anthropology and Individual Lives: The Story of the Life History and the

History of the Life Story

Reviewed Work(s): Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence by Charlotte Linde: Storied
Lives: The Cultural Politics of Self-Understanding by George C. Rosenwald and Richard
L. Ochberg
Review by: Gelya Frank
Source: American Anthropologist , Mar., 1995, New Series, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Mar., 1995),
pp. 145-148
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/682393

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 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS 145

Anthropology and Individual Lives: The Story of the Life History and
the History of the Life Story

GELYA FRAK individual needs to have a coherent, acceptable, and con-

University of Southern California stantly revised life story" (p. 3).
Linde's contribution is founded on the work by her
Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence. Charlotte Linde. teacher, sociolinguist William Labov, concerning the
New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. xiv + 242 pp.
structure of stories told about personal experience in
conversations. His approach helped liberate narrative
Storied Lives: The Cultural Politics of Self-Under-
standing. George C. Rosenwald and Richard L. Ochberg, analysis from single-speaker, text-based models. Organiz-
eds. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. ix + 304 pp. ing the apparently idiographic narratives of ordinary con-
versation, Labov found shared cognitive structures, con-
Once upon a time, the life history method was an ventions, or rules-that is, plentiful evidence of culture
all-purpose tool in the anthropologist's kit, useful in pro- and tradition. For example, a story as a discourse unit
portion to its lack of specialization but not much good for must include an evaluation of the sequence of events
disciplinary leverage. Through the 1980s and 1990s, many recounted or a "point" to the story.
factors converged to push the lived experience of indi- In a brilliant move, Linde radically extends Labov's
viduals into the academic spotlight. This repositioning of definition of story to the life story, which she defines as a
the individual in anthropological studies, along with a new special kind of discourse unit that is temporally discon-
interest in life stories, corresponds to the rapid transfor- tinuous and that includes all the stories told by a speaker
mations of the poststructuralist world order. A healthy in which the point is about the speaker's self:
distrust has emerged of representing peoples, institutions,
A life story consists of all the stories and associated discourse
communities, and classes as coherent entities. Ethnogra- units, such as explanations and chronicles, and the connec-
phies written from feminist standpoints and other critical tions between them, told by an individual during the course
positions now commonly argue that essentialized repre- of his/her lifetime that satisfy the following two criteria:
sentations obscure members' diverse experiences, con- 1. The stories and associated discourse units contained in the
tested desires, and unequal resources. Thus a turn to the life stoiy have as their primary evaluation a point about the
person-the only subject able to speak for itself-makes speaker, not a general point about the way the world is.
2. The stories and associated discourse units have extended
sense not only methodologically but perhaps for the first
reportability; that is, they are tellable and are told and retold
time ontologically and therefore theoretically.
over the course of a long period of time. [p. 21]
At the same time, however, the critique that takes the
coherence of groups to be a narrative construction is Linde's bold conceptualization of the life story sets
being extended to the coherence of individual identity. up the formal problem of how a speaker creates narrative
Life histories focused mostly on diachronic change within coherence between discrepant versions of his or her life
anthropology's traditional paradigm of naturalism or real- story. In Linde's empirical data (narratives about occupa-
ism; research on life stories, on the other hand, focuses on tional choice elicited from 13 American white middle-
the cultural scripts and narrative devices individuals use class professionals), the speakers strive to create coher
to make sense of experience. Life story research empha- ence not only in relation to previous stories about
sizes the truth of the telling versus telling the truth; it themselves but to cultural assumptions about nature and
focuses on the strategies speakers use to fashion coher- the social order, especially concepts of "the self" and
ence from the disparate and potentially contradictory moral action. Since evaluation-or making a point-is a
experiences of their lives. Such research tends to be even formal property of narratives, life stories necessarily al-
more phenomenological in method than life histories, low the speaker to reflect upon whether his or her self is
presenting discrete speech acts situated in context as (or was) good and proper. And because of narrative's
against narratives edited to resemble written autobiogra- inherent property of reflexivity and distancing, Linde ob-
phies. serves, "Confession may be good for the soul, but it is also
Life Stories: The Creation of Coherence, by Charlotte excellent for the self-image" (p. 124).
Linde, is a paradigm-setting book, much like the works of Managing causality, Linde argues, is the major task in
sociologist Erving Goffman. Like Goffman, Linde presents creating a coherent life story. In part the problem of
not so much a grand theory of society as a penetrating andcausality is formal, due to the linear temporal structure
generative insight into a core constituent of social life: "Ininherent in Western narrative structure ("I dropped the
order to exist in the social world with a comfortable sense iron and burnt myself" means something different from "I
of being a good, socially proper, and stable person, an burnt myself and dropped the iron"). Linde finds that

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146 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST . VOL. 97, NO. 1 . MARCH 1995

character traits serve as the most adequate reason for her of beliefs and relations between beliefs" that "provides the
speakers' career decisions: "I was good at it, I like that sort environment in which one statement may or may not be
of thing" requires no further explanation. However, "I was taken as a cause of another statement" p. 163. As semi-
in love with a girl who was enrolled in pre-med, so I expert systems of beliefs more coherent than common
decided to become a doctor" would constitute an inade- sense, they are able to provide people with a vocabulary
quate reason for the choice of a career. Richness of for creating a self. The following account, for example, is
account also provides strong coherence-that is, the use coherent only in the context of beliefs that the self is split
of multiple but noncontradictory reasons that give tempo- into conflicting component parts, that real causes are
ral depth to a career choice. found in childhood experiences, and that there are levels
Linde's treatment of speakers' problems in managing of personality, some of which are deeper than others.
inadequate causality is the culmination of her analysis of Popular Freudian psychology here provides a coherence
coherence within the discourse unit. She discusses two system that corrects for the otherwise unacceptable
types of incoherence: accident and discontinuity, both moral
of evaluation of the account (that the speaker was not
which seem to impute a deficiency in intention or agency in control of her actions and had made a bad decision):
to the speaker. Linde finds that speakers manage acci-
So I didn't really make much of a decision there. I think that's
dents by such strategies as showing that the accident was
one way of looking at it I made a decision. It was the decision
only apparent, not real (that the career choice was other-
that I didn't like at the time, so that's why I have the sense that
wise proper or well motivated), or by distancing them-
I was forced into it, but there are all kinds of psychological
selves from their earlier selves. Discontinuity between
things that make you do things at various moments in your
professions, another serious threat to coherence, is man- life. [p.167]
aged by similar strategies: the discontinuity is only appar-
ent, only temporary, part of a larger chain of causal events, In chapter 7, Linde attempts to link her data on
or (as in the following account by a professor of sociol- narratives of occupational choice to the history of Ameri-
ogy) the result of choices made by a younger and differentcan beliefs about positive thinking, individual will, and
self: prosperity as the just reward for hard work. Here she
deals with the often-noted phenomenon of "ontological
Um I thought, as one, as adolescents without talent are prone
individualism" (p. 200) in American culture, the unre-
to do, of the performing arts in various ways. Uh I was in
flected-upon attitude that the individual is the only or
theater for a while in high school and college and I was an
main form of reality. In the final chapter, Linde makes
actress through college and had fantasies about making that
a life which were of course unrealistic. [p. 157]
clear that her analysis means to deal only with discourse
as a linguistic object, exclusive of events and practices.
It is when Linde gets into the area of common-sense She admits that linguistic analyses, when they deal with
beliefs concerning the self as agent that her work is most power relations, do not link local speech acts to larger-
fascinating, but it also calls for systematic research and scale power relations. Indeed, Linde found that the mid-
analysis far beyond that allowed by her own data. Linde dle-class white narrators in her study did not commonly
argues, for example, that narratives of occupational refer to social and political causes in their personal ac-
choice have less reference to the moral self for the work- counts of career choice. Finally, Linde calls for linguists
ing class than for professionals (professionals are sup- to historicize the investigation of discourses, as against
posed to have a calling, while people in the working classthe exclusively synchronic approach of discourse analysis
are expected to work at the job that offers the best pay).to date.
She also cites Labov, who found that for working-class Linde uses liberal doses of deductive reasoning and
speakers luck or destiny seems to serve more commonly a somewhat idiosyncratic mix of relevant literatures to
as an explanation for events than it does for middle-class ground aspects of her argument that go beyond her lim-
speakers. As Linde herself points out: "This area merits a ited set of data. Many anthropologists will feel that Linde's
great deal of further research: whether indeed there are cultural analyses lack enough empirical data and context
such class differences, how these differences relate to to support her claims. (Cognitive anthropologists and
particular class positions and class histories, how narra- linguists may be more sympathetic.) Much research will
tives in cross-class interactions are formulated, and so on" be needed to evaluate and elaborate upon the applicability
(p. 129). of Linde's theories and findings to the life stories of di-
The two concluding chapters of Linde's book deal verse ethnic groups and subcultures within American
even more directly with belief systems or culture in the society, members of societies outside the Anglo-American
traditional anthropological sense. In chapter 6, Linde in- linguistic sphere, and especially, particular individuals
troduces a new concept, "coherence system," as a level of over time. The effort will be worth it: Linde's clear reason-
analysis above the discourse unit in the construction of ing, provocative arguments, and brilliant insights make
causality. She defines the coherence system as "a system her book a major contribution.

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 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS 147

relation to Linde's work on narratives of occupational

In Storied Lives: The Cultural Politics of Self-Under-
choice). In "In The Name of the Father," Stanley D. Rosen-
standing, a collection of superb essays by psychologists,
anthropologists, and sociologists, George C. Rosenwald berg, Harriet J. Rosenberg, and Michael P. Farrell take a
and Richard L. Ochberg attempt to push the research Lacanian point of view to explore domination by the
agenda for life stories beyond the formal coherence of father and by the paternal principle in the narratives and
narratives in order to relate narrative coherence to social life histories of a conventional, middle-class American
practice. They offer a critique of life stories that attempts family. The essay is equally compelling in demonstrating
to overcome the kind of"ontological individualism" noted how coherence work is done by members of a family as
by Linde in her analysis of the life stories of middle-class an organized social unit.
white American professionals. In their introduction, In "Life Stories: Pieces of a Dream," Mary Gergen
Rosenwald and Ochberg use critical theory to advance angoes beyond her previous important work on the narrative
intriguing argument (1) that narratives are not repre- substructures of life stories as tragedy, romance, or com-
edy to offer a gender analysis of popular American auto-
sentational but formative of identity; (2) that the self-for-
mative power of personal narrative may be constrained or biographies (such as those of Lee Iacocca and Beverly
stunted, so that life stories may be improved; and (3) that Sills), suggesting that men portray themselves in terms of
it is possible to enlarge the range of personal narrative heroic
to action and women in terms of relationships. Ger-
make individuals and communities aware of the political- gen writes in a Bernaminesque style, interposing quotes
cultural conditions "that have led to the circumscription with text, but missing is a critical discussion of the prob-
of discourse" (p. 2). lem of characterizing the language used by men and
The first item is not unique to Rosenwald and Och- women apart from specific contexts of power. In "The
berg, but the rest of their agenda is fresh and provocative. Afterlife of Stories: Genesis of a Man of God," Harding
If the idea that lives are shaped by sociocultural opportu- presents an exegesis of Christian narrative conventions
nities and constraints is not new, the idea that life stories used by a fundamentalist minister who sought to convert
are shaped by them is. For Rosenwald and Ochberg, this the researcher through his shocking personal confession.
view allows the evaluation not only of social conditions, It would be hard to suggest how Reverend Cantrell, whom
but of life stories as "good" or "bad" (or "better" or Harding calls a master storyteller, could tell his story
"worse"). Though the life story may "work" for the indi- better; Harding does not try.
vidual, discourse "mediates between the fate of the indi- In the essay where an author most explicitly evalu-
vidual and the larger order of things" (p. 2). Rosenwald ates his narrators' life stories, the result is uncomfortable.
and Ochberg assert that it is possible and necessary to In "African-Americans and the Pursuit of Wider Identities:
listen critically to life stories for "the reasons and costs of Self-Other Understandings in Black Female Narratives,"
stories' disfigurement" (p. 6, emphasis added). Aaron David Gresson presents accounts by two black
Specifically, Rosenwald and Ochberg reject the view women, both of whom had had children with white men
that all life stories stand equally as instantiations of the but were disappointed and hurt by their racism. Gresson
specific culture in which they were shaped. They propose makes negative examples of the women themselves for
hearing life stories as conflicted outcomes of the struggle what he characterizes as a betrayal of the race:
between consciousness and repression, between individ- Marcia and Janice ... want to go beyond the constraints of
ual desire and social adaptation. Judging what makes for traditional African-American unity by becoming intimate with
"better" stories (and, by extension, "better" discourses white men, but they continue to ask for the support of tradi-
and "better" social practices) is thus a central problem- tional African-American unity. When their rationales for
atic: breaking with the traditional expectations are compromised
by their need to remain attached to the race, they come
The silences, truncations, and confusions in stories as well as face-to-face with their paradoxical predicament. I begin with
the occasional outbreaks of action contradicting an individ- a brief introduction of the women and follow with an exposi-
ual's "official" narrative, point out to us-and to the narrator, tion of the form the contradiction and the rationalization takes
if only his or her recognition can be enlisted-what else might in each case. [p. 167]
be said and sought [p. 7]
Rosenwald and Ochberg could use critical theory to
Most of Rosenwald and Ochberg's contributors (in- question Gresson's essentialization and valorization of
cluding anthropologists Ruth Behar, Susan Harding, and "tradition,"a notion he appears to deploy to keep black
Judith Modell) write without reference, however, to the women in line. What is "traditional African-American
editors' critical theory agenda. In "Work, Identity, and unity"? Who defines it? The women's narratives give evi
Narrative: An Artist-Craftsman's Story," Elliot G. Mishler's dence that their biracial children were rejected in the
innovative method for analyzing decision nodes in the African-American community only by certain black men
formation of an occupational identity is a sophisticated who were potential mates. By repeatedly pointing out the
cognitive model (and one that begs to be read carefully in failure of Marcia and Janice to "understand" their situ-

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148 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST * VOL. 97, NO. 1 . MARCH 1995

ation, Gresson sets up the myth that there is for

one her. The essay suggests that evaluating life stories
holy,
works best
orthodox, heterosexist strategy for black women to deal when liberation is defmed in terms of the
narrator's
with the painful realities of racism in America. In doingown process of wresting power away from
so, he obliterates the truth of these women's experiences
social authority. Ochberg's own essay, "Social Insight and
of identity formation and their contributionsPsychological
to social Liberation," makes this point beautifully. I
process. doubt whether life stories can be evaluated properly (be
As a white and female reviewer, I must note my related to praxis) if they are overly textualized-that is,
discomfort in singling out a black male's contribution fortaken from the context of ongoing lived experience or the
such negative comment. But my feeling signals a problem ongoing dialogue with the interpreter, in which the narra-
with Rosenwald and Ochberg's otherwise impressive col- tor retains the power to refme or respond to ideas of what
lection, because they wish to link critical theory with would make a "better" story. After all, false consciousness
narrative and praxis. Gresson's essay was the only one in is so much easier to spot in someone else.
this volume with an identifiably nonwhite author or nar-
The quest for better life stories, which Rosenwald
rator. Had Rosenwald and Ochberg included two or three
and Ochberg propose, is the attempt to use life stories to
more essays by or about African-American men and
think critically about the selves and society they help us
women, they would have made the struggle easier for me
to construct. This research agenda offers us a path away
and for Gresson.
from an empty formalism that might reduce individual
In "Karen: The Transforming Story," on the other
lives to mere data for the sake of the social science
hand, Jacquelyn Wiersma evaluates the life story of a
woman who, in a series of interviews, clarifies her choice industry. However, such an agenda requires greater pow-
ers of collaboration than are typically at hand if we are to
to pursue a doctoral degree rather than motherhood.
Using a model of interaction that is basically psychothera- avoid creating new hierarchies of judgmentalism. It will
peutic, Wiersma is careful to keep her analysis on the level take some time to integrate and exhaust the study of
coherence in life stories that is foundational to the project.
of the story, not the person. ("Can a bad story become
good?" does not slip into "Can a bad girl become good?") And it will take effort to integrate the possibly fragment-
Also, Wiersma does consider the usefulness of Karen's ing tendencies of discourse about individual lives into
story to her as a matter of primary importance and uses social theory and more workable practices of social exist-
Karen's own terms as a guide to how well the story works ence. m

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