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Part I. Interdisciplinary Approach to Storytelling | 15
past to present. According to Heller, although autobiographical narratives are
often written with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of oneself,
an individual can never know oneself completely; autobiographical narratives
can therefore only partially contribute to self-knowledge.
Heller sees autobiographical narrative as fiction. Already at the moment
of the event those present form interpretations of what happened, and later,
when the experience is retrieved, the interpretations stored in memory
are incorporated into the narrative told in the present - although these
interpretations may later be revised. Self-narration becomes inauthentic,
according to Heller, when the narrator manipulates the storytelling for external
reasons (e.g., political or material interests) or for self-justification (e.g., by
over-emphasizing evidence of victimhood). In this case, the narrative is not
a representation, but the narrator’s presentation through narrative.
Narrative construction is crucial in individual knowledge production
and retrieval, in social communication, and in the cultural heritage of a
group. Bruner (1996) argues that human learning is embedded in a cultural
context since the mind cannot exclude it from the process of meaning¬
making. Individual knowledge constructions are created through the narrative
interpretation of the world’s phenomena through human interactions with
cultural symbols. This system of symbols is known, preserved, developed
and passed on to future generations - thus ensuring the transmission of
culture and the creation of cultural narratives. Individuals define their place
in the world through their own narratives, and cultural narratives provide a
framework for individual actions and identity formation.
Commonalities are often found between individual narratives, especially
when the individuals are members of the same group. Individual stories
are also linked in different ways to the story frameworks found in a given
culture (Laszld, 1999). Individual narratives are relevant to the identity of
a group, as the memories that define the group are manifested in the form
of stories. These narratives play an important role in maintaining group
identity and preserving cultural memory (Assmann, 1999). Such stories can
be anecdotes and reminiscences of kinship within a family, but also national
sagas or individual oral histories interpreted by historians with the help of
external sources. Identification with these stories strengthens group identity,
reinforces important characteristics of the group and creates a community
of remembrance.
In all human cultures, there is a dominant worldview that determines
how meaning can be made, and within this system are countless shared and
individual stories. Repetitions can be detected in these narratives, but they
all have a fixed point which Heller (2015), following Assmann, calls cultural
memory. The shared individual stories fit into the same common narrative,
creating a dominant worldview. Cultural memory, with its many stories,
further influences individuals, who have the opportunity to identify with the
heroes of the dominant narratives shared among the group. The subjective