Broken and Vicarious Voices in Narratives

Abstract

By working on that one story of mine every day-even small amounts at a time-I hoped I’d be able to tell people about this illness and overcome it. I’ve already worked on the story of my illness for three years. Writing about and studying myself is my way of thinking, keeping busy, working at something. It reassures me, so I keep at it. By doing it again and again (I don’t know how many times I’ve rewritten this over the years), my speaking ability has improved. I really do speak better now and can remember words that were scattered into bits and pieces by my head wound. By training myself (through thinking and writing) I’ve gotten to the point where I can carry on a conversation-at least about simple, everyday matters. (Luria, 1973, p. 85) Zasetsky, a Soviet soldier, was hit in the head by a German bullet in 1944. The bullet destroyed portions of his brain, and as a consequence he lost the ability to create order in his life. His past became impenetrable and his daily life was split into parts that lacked any internal coherence. By devoting effort for decades to writing and speaking, Zasetsky could fi nally begin to fi nd his own voice again. He could slowly patch together his shattered world into an integral whole, and thus begin to regain his life and to create order in it.

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