“Who are you?” or implementing the strategy of depersonalization on an autobiographical narrative
- Pages
- 49-57
Abstract
This article seeks to explore the possibility of applying psychological and neurobiological data with regard to the notions of “self”, “narrative identity”, and “depersonalization” to the case of autobiography as a type of text. The analysis highlights the importance of memory being a cognitive process that underlies any self-narration. Using Will Self’s work “Walking to Hollywood: memories of before the fall” as case study, we investigate an authorial technique of mimicking the gradual failure of the narrative identity by the subject of the autobiogtaphical narrative, so “the strategy of depersonalization”. The article, therefore, is structured in three parts with a conclusion. The first two introductory sections are about the crucial importance of interdisciplinary approach in cognitive linguistic studies, and memory’s interpretative significance in constructing self-narration. Ultimately, in section 3, we offer an analysis of some extracts from the text in question which show how “the strategy of depersonalization” is being omplemented by the author.