Dialogic Subjectivity: Narrating the Self in Stories about Others

Abstract

Abstract:The author's grandmother, Jude, has always been a storyteller. Over the years, her personal experience narratives served as a container for family history and functioned as a reaffirmation of Jude's identity—an identity often created through the process of telling. When Jude began to suffer from dementia, her stories became a source of com-fort and stability as she lost aspects essential to her subjective understanding of herself. While the majority of her stories are self-oriented, this article focuses on a story from Jude's repertoire that is "other-oriented"—Jude's narrative of her Polish grandmother's migration to the United States—to demonstrate how even her other-oriented stories serve an identity function. Through a dialogic process using metanarration, contrasts, and repetition, Jude negotiates between audience, character, and her own memories to express subjectivities. Interpreting these dialogic subjectivities gives the author insight into Jude's experiences as she faces the end of her life.