Narrativity
and Image:
Metaphors of the Dialogical Self and the Problem of Spatiality
(Commentary on Ruck & Slunecko)
Liliana Meira & Tiago Ferreira
University of Minho (Braga), Portugal
pp.
291-300
ABSTRACT. Ruck
and Slunecko (2008) present a proposal for a method of investigation of
the dialogical
self which is based on the potential of the image as a form of
self-expression
and a privileged means of accessing its structure and relational
dynamics. The
main objective of the pictorial method is the study of the role of the
self’s
spatial and temporal dimensions and it seeks to become an alternative
tool to
methods of a narrative nature, which put stress on the temporal
dimension, and
which have dominated dialogical self theory at a meta-theoretical and
theoretical levels and also at a methodological level. This commentary
takes
the form of a reflection on the dichotomy inherent to the general
argument of
the authors: image versus narrative in the dialogical conception of the
self.
The viability of both narrative and pictorial metaphors, in the
description of
the dialogicality intrinsic to the processes pertaining to identity is
discussed through the difference between narrative / textual /
linguistic
spatiality and imagery/ pictorial / geographic spatiality.