What Is Life Writing?

1. What Is Life Writing?
FIRST LECTURE
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com
education| storytelling | culture

2. EXAMPLE LIFE WRITING
2
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
Dying for relief

3. o Turning lives into
stories(“Life stories”)
o Always a translation:
• Of actions into words,
images, sounds
• Of events into plots
o Focuses on actual
experiences
LIFE WRITING
3
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

4. o Makes it easier to
understand what
happened to us and
others
o Creates a sense of
autonomy
o Demands an
emotional
investment of the
reader
TO TURN LIVES INTO STORIES
4
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

5. o Illustrates a larger
event or process
o Of rather:
deconstructs this
larger event or
proces:
counternarratives
o Shows ‘the truth’ to
be not always true
WHY LIFE WRITING?
5
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

6. EXAMPLE: MEN ARE SQUARE, WOMEN
ARE CURVY
6
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

7. MEN ARE SQUARE, WOMEN ARE CURVY?
7
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

8. o Grand narratives:
idea about reality
that presents itself
as reality itself
(religions, national
histories,
stereotypes, etc.)
o Small narratives:
individual histories
GRAND AND SMALL NARRATIVES
8
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

9. o Grand narrative demands
harmony by declaring
everything else:
• Taboo
• Lie
• Insanity
o Life writing:
• Offers counternarratives
• Challenges grand
narratives
• Incites (social) change
COUNTERNARRATIVES
9
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

10. EXERCISE 1
0
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
Think of a grand narrative
Imagine a possible counternarrative and describe
what this counternarrative would look like. What
would it be about, what would happen?
(This could be a good topic for a life writing story!)

11. o Storytelling is a
process; an act
o We need:
• Storyteller
• Story
• Content
• Audience
WHAT IS STORYTELLING?
1
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
Ethical dimension of
storytelling: A story is told
by someone for someone
in a specific situation for a
specific reason

12. o Knowledge of and
reflection on morals
o Morals:
• What one should do
in relation to others
• Norms and values
WHAT IS ETHICS?
2
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

13. oWhat is morally
right
oWhy act morally
oConditions for
acting morally
ETHICAL QUESTIONS
3
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
?

14. oMorality: defined
by framing
oEthics: reflection
on this framing
oStorytelling:
could offer
alternative
framings
ETHICS
4
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com