Author Govert SchullerPosted on Categories Philosophy 
Each of us constructs and lives a ‘narrative’ . . .
this narrative is us, our identities — Oliver Sacks.
This dissertation is the fruit of my research on the concept of narrative identity, i.e. the claim that our sense of self is structured like a story. While investigating this concept it became clear that narrativity functioned metaphorically, not in the sense of a literary figure of speech, but as a tacit, formative operation, which transfers the intelligibility inherent in the familiar domain of stories to the more elusive domain of personal identity, especially in regards to the intimate and often problematic significance of its life-span.
This research was undertaken under the auspices of the University of Wales: Trinity Saint David and was submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of a Degree of Masters by Research in European Philosophy in the School of Humanities and Performing Arts of the University of Wales.
My research supervisor was Dr. Adrian Davis.
The dissertation was submitted in January 2019 and was accepted in September 2019.
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Abstract
The focus of this dissertation is narrative identity theory, i.e. the proposition that our sense of self is structured like a story. The imputed advantage of narrative identity is that it enables great coherence and guidance to our complex lives composed of multiple and often conflicting inner impulses and social demands.
The manner in which this is accomplished is that narrativity functions metaphorically as a tacit, formative operation, which transfers the intelligibility inherent in the familiar domain of stories to the more elusive domain of personal identity. Narrativity is an epistemically efficient kind of discourse which can synthesize a multitude of elements into a unity called plot. A plot gives unity to the whole of a story and confers significance to its parts.
Both narrativity and metaphoricity are the more recognizable products of an underlying mechanism both share, i.e. productive imagination. This faculty pervasively and continually configures the whole field of our experience, accentuating the relevant structures of our physical, social or inner, affective-mental environment (context) and projects the path through this environment towards a physical destiny, social accomplishment or resolution (direction).
With the tools of classic Husserlian phenomenology and its radicalization in Heideggerian existential hermeneutics the main concepts of narrativity, metaphoricity and productive imagination can be further clarified and connected. This will enable a discussion about the question whether the ontological status of narrative identity can be construed such that either 1) personal identity merely has narrative cognition available as a pervasive, tacit tool to cope with life, or 2) whether our personal identity is nothing but the product of the productive imagination operating through narrativity.