title: [Identity and narration: autobiographical quests].
abstract: This paper aims to tackle the subtle relation between autobiographical narratives and identity construction, from a non essentialist conception of identity. In a perspective that articulates philosophy of language, psychoanalysis, semiotics and literary critique, we posit the concept of biographical space as an analytical instrument to make a critical update of the reconfiguration of identities and subjectivities in contemporary culture, marked by the predominance of the biographical, the private and a kind of "public intimacy". This look is more symptomatic than descriptive: it intends to account for the rise of auto/biographical narratives and life-stories, from canonic genres to their multiple derivations in the media, social networks and the most diverse artistic practices, a phenomenon that seems to reaffirm the notion of narrative identities by Ricoeur. Our analysis here, from an ethic, aesthetic and political point of view, will focus on two visual arts experiences that have recently taken place for the first time in Buenos Aires: Christian Boltanski's and Tracey Emin's, solo exhibitions, each of them with a different biographical approach.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Instituto de Investigaciones "Gino Germani". larfuch@yahoo.com.ar.
authors.forename: Leonor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arfuch
mesh_terms: D001325:Autobiographies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D033262:Narration; D012933:Social Identification