Abstract:
This article, written at the intersection of social philosophy and anthropology, explores a mode of self-identification found in the narratives of the older generation of Lithuania who experienced or only witnessed the coercion of an occupational regime. This mode is named the “weak identification” and prescribed to forms of resilience. It is evident in life stories where the narrator focuses not on herself but on another person – one who is neither famous nor powerful, but a publicly unknown contemporary embodying the vulnerability of the epoch. To explain this mode of identification and self-narration, several conceptions of social philosophy are involved, primarily those addressing the modality of social ties (R.G. Collingwood, E. Laclau, G. Agamben, etc.). The article argues that this form of self-identification as a mode of social and political resilience serves as a rejection of hegemonic aspirations to power and develops unique mode of self-narration with a replaced center.
Keywords:
weak-identification, resilience, contingency, self-narration
How to cite:
Jonutytė, Jurga. “Self-Narratives of Resilience: Contingency and the Weakness of Identification.” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 9, no. 2 (2025): 37-64. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2025.0013.
Author:
Jurga Jonutytė
Department of Folk Songs, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore
Antakalnio g. 6, LT-10308 Vilnius, Lithuania
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8532-6349
jurga.jonutyte@vdu.lt
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