Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair

by Nelson, Hilde Lindemann

• ISBN13: 9780801487408
• ISBN10: 0801487404
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Hilde Lindemann Nelson focuses on the stories of groups of people -- including Gypsies, mothers, nurses, and transsexuals -- whose identities have been defined by those with the power to speak for them and to constrain the scope of their actions. By placing their stories side by side with narratives about the groups in question, Nelson arrives at some important insights regarding the nature of identity.

She regards personal identity as consisting not only of how people view themselves but also of how others view them. These perceptions combine to shape the person's field of action. If a dominant group constructs the identities of certain people through socially shared narratives that mark them as morally subnormal, those who bear the damaged identity cannot exercise their moral agency freely.

Nelson identifies two kinds of damage inflicted on identities by abusive group relations: one kind deprives individuals of important social goods, and the other deprives them of self-respect. To intervene in the production of either kind of damage, Nelson develops the

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Narrative Repair: Reclaiming Moral Agency	1	(35)
Narrative Approaches to Ethics	36	(33)
The Narrative Construction of Personal Identities	69	(37)
Identities Damaged to Order	106	(44)
Counterstories	150	(39)
Bibliography	189	(10)
Index	199