This document discusses dialogic identity and how identity is shaped by relationships and context. It presents the idea that identity is an ongoing conversation, both with others and within our own minds, and is influenced by how others see us and how we internalize their perspectives. The document suggests exercises for mapping relationships and considering how others might tell our stories in order to understand how identity is dialogic and ever-changing rather than fixed.

1. Dialogic Identity
FOURTH LECTURE
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com
education | storytelling | culture

2. oIdentity is never
finished
oDepends on the
context
oDepends on the
audience
oIs ‘dialogic’
NARRATIVE IDENTITY
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

3. o ‘I’ am ‘I’ in relation to
others
o Narrative identity is a
continuous
conversation:
• In reality
• In our minds
o The ideas of others
about us become our
own ideas about
ourselves
DIALOGIC IDENTITY
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

4. oSimilarities &
differences
oSo: identity not
static
o“One person is
not a person”
(Daoist saying)
DIALOGUE ABOUT ‘I’
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

5. OTHER PEOPLE’S STORY OF YOU BECOMES
‘YOU’
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
“Dead giveaway”

6. o Forced
authenticity
o The chance to tell
one’s own story is
lost
o Negative self
image
OTHER PEOPLE’S STORY OF YOU:
THE RISK
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com

7. EXERCISE 1
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
Place the main character of your life writing in a
‘web of relations’
(Make a schema, place the main character int he
middle and connect the other persons in your
story with him or her using lines. The shorter
the line, the stronger the relationship)

8. EXERCISE 2
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
Take one or more persons from this ‘web of
relations’
Think what the story would be like if those
other people would tell the story

9. FINAL SENTENCES
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
"Go, my book, and help destroy the world as it
is."
- Russell Banks, Continental Drift -
“And you say: ‘Just a minute, I have almost
finished reading If on a Winter’s Night a
Traveler by Italo Calvino.’”
- Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a
Traveler -

10. FINAL SENTENCES
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sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
“He nodded. He began.”
- Bernlef, Pianoman -
“His trip to Friesland has always remained a
mystery.”
- Nescio, The Opportunist -
“And... oh well, and so on, and so forth...”
- Louis Paul Boon, The Suburb Grows -

11. EXERCISE 3
1
sjoerd-jeroen moenandar
moenandar@gmail.com http://moenandar.blogspot.com
Write a final sentence for your life writing story