This project was informed by extensive research into relevant literature sources which allowed me to gain a better understanding of the creation of autobiographical narratives and the making of 'self'.
In theory, autobiography is a story of a "lived life" which is told retrospectively, more or less chronologically, and along teleological lines (Brockmeier 1997). Therefore, as we live our life we can only create autobiographical narratives that over time contribute to the bigger narrative. Bruner (2004) defines a concept of “world-making" which he describes as the principal function of the mind, it explains that stories do not happen in the real world, rather are constructed in people’s minds. Consequently, autobiographies are not a record of what happened but should be regarded as a continuing interpretation and reinterpretation of our experience.
Brockmeier explains ;
‘Autobiographical construction is a common and elementary practice of the self, neither bound to a particular age, level of education, or social "habitus," nor to the act or linguistic mode of writing in the narrow sense. Rather, it is in most forms of discourse that we order our experiences, memories, intentions, hopes, desires, fears, and concerns in an autobiographical perspective.’
Bruner (1990) proposes a concept according to which our desires may lead us to find meanings in contexts where others might not, we think not of 'Self' but of Possible Selves along with Now Self. Possible selves represent ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become and what they are afraid of becoming. As if there were an ego that owns not only the physical and psychological characteristics but also the events of life history (Brockmeier 1997). Patterns of identity, experience, time, and memory have been understood as temporary orders in a process of continuous construction and reconstruction (Brockmeier 1997), therefore, what develops in the autobiographical process is neither a substantial or mental self, nor a transcendental concept of personal identity; rather, it is we who develop our however mutable and fluid identities (Brockmeier 1997).
According to Bruner (1990) autobiographical narrative accounts must have at least two characteristics. They should canter upon people and their intentional states: their desires, beliefs, and so on; and they should focus on how these intentional states led to certain kinds of activities. He further explains folk psychology, referring to human agents doing things on the basis of their beliefs and desires, striving for goals, meeting obstacles which they best or which best them, all of this extended over time.
Amâncio (2017) describes four narrative elements which according to Barthes (1977) are; actions (demonstrating emotions, eating, interacting), happenings (updates), characters (people, self- portraits and animals) and setting (environment). In addition, she outlines means to tell stories and create or enrich narrative on Instagram. These means are images, texts, videos, emojis, doodles, instant information and filters, all of which are semiotic resources. Semiotics refer to everything that can be taken as as sign (Amâncio 2017), they facilitate the communication by enabling the user to break down the meaning of words, images, videos, sound and more.
Consequently, Instagram created a new potential narrative language of photos between different cultures and countries. It developed a natural facilitative language which enables people to tell about themselves or understand one another (Seyfi and Soydas 2017).
The filtering process on the platform introduces an affective, expressive dimension to the image. This decreases its documentary value as an un-altered record of what existed before the camera but increases its capacity to capture the desires and moods of its author. Filtered images do not claim “this is how it looked” but rather “how I wanted to it look” or “how I felt it looked.” (Fallon 2014). In addition to filters, user can also make use of emojis, GIFs and stickers which can act as an alternative tailoring means to text captions (Amâncio 2017).
Bibliography
Brockmeier, J., 1997. Autobiography, narrative, and the Freudian concept of life history. Philosophy, psychiatry, & psychology, 4(3), pp.175-199.
Bruner, J., 1990. Acts of meaning. Harvard university press, Vol. 3, pp 40-46
Bruner, J., 1991. Self-making and world-making. Journal of aesthetic education, 25(1), pp.67-78.
Bruner, J., 2004. Life as narrative. Social research: An international quarterly, 71(3), pp.691-710.
Fallon, K., 2014. October. Streams of the self: The Instagram feed as narrative autobiography. In Proceedings of the interactive narratives, new media & social engagement international conference, Vol. 101, pp.54-60.
Koliska, M. and Roberts, J., 2015. Selfies| selfies: Witnessing and participatory journalism with a point of view. International Journal of Communication, 9, pp.14.
Seyfi, M. and SOYDAŞ, A.U., 2017. Instagram stories from the perspective of narrative transportation theory. Turkish Online Journal Of Design Art And Communication, 7(1), pp.47-60.