Anderson starts Chapter 10, Self: Narrative, Identity, and Agency with a quote from Mexican author Carlos Fuentes:
We are voices in a chorus that transforms lived life into narrated life
and then returns narrative to life, not in order to reflect life,
but rather to add something else, not a copy, but a new measure of life;
to add, with each novel, something more
e, to life.
I decided to look at Anderson to find a reason for my need for narrative throughout my work. I believe my process of working matches Fuentes's theory. Taking an experience and making something in through the lens of my narration. The work, therefore, becomes a new view of this experience.
Anderson says 'we account for how and why we think our world is and how and why it ought to be, through narrative.' When this narrative is applied to art, it creates a capture of the time including our reflections and aspirations.
We share ourselves and our lives with others by assembling the bits and pieces of our narratives into viable storied versions influenced by memory, context, and intention.
The work that I wish to create, will hopefully be a viable storied version. My memories of grandparents, the context of the life cycle, and the intention to process.
Harlene Anderson, Converstation, Language, and Possibilities: A postmodern approach to therapy, Basic Books, 1997, pg.211-212
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