Narrative Identity Construction in Social Contexts
Summary
Through narrative identity construction individuals craft internalised and evolving life stories that anchor personal experiences within broader social frameworks. These self-narratives emerge in interaction with cultural norms, collective memories and relational exchanges, enabling people to articulate continuity, agency and belonging. In social contexts—from intimate conversations to digital forums—narratives function as both reflective and performative acts: they reveal how storytellers position themselves vis-à-vis others, negotiate power relations and align with or resist dominant discourses. The dynamic interplay between individual agency and structural influences shapes narrative content and form, producing situated identities that are continually revised in response to changing social landscapes. Practical applications span clinical settings, where narrative techniques support identity repair, to educational environments that harness storytelling for self-concept development and to digital media studies exploring the impact of online self-presentation. By integrating qualitative discourse analysis with quantitative corpus methods, recent research highlights how narrative devices—such as temporal sequencing, thematic framing and shared templates—contribute to identity coherence and collective sense-making across diverse cultural and institutional contexts.
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Narrative Identity Construction in Social Contexts publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in narrative identity construction in social contexts across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Narrative identity: The internalised and evolving life story through which individuals interpret past experiences and project future selves.
Positioning: Discursive practice by which speakers locate themselves and others within social interactions and power relations.
Shared narrative template: A culturally recognised storyline structure that guides collective memory and sense-making across contexts.
Discursive analysis: Methodological approach examining language use, narrative structures and interactional patterns to interpret identity construction.
References
- Narrative analysis in health psychology: a guide for analysis. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine (2018).
- Language learning space and legitimation of adult second language speakers in the workplace. International Journal of Multilingualism (2024).
- Denial from the other side: Experiences of racism as narrated by South Sudanese refugees in Australia. Discourse Studies (2024).
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