The Social Complexity of Biography
Biographical research deals with descriptions of life as a social fact (Corsten 1994). This applies in two ways: firstly, biographies have developed as a social form in the process of cultural history and, secondly, they contain the everyday and life practices of individual people as they were lived in the past. In this respect, biographies document the forms in which people’s lives were described at certain times, but also indirectly convey the lifestyles of the people themselves through what is described. Biographies therefore contain multi-layered references to the relationship between the individual and society in a historical phase.
Autobiography, Habitus and Subjectification
A first facet of biographical analysis concerns the process of subjectification of the modern person in relation to the socially generated habitus. Since modernity, individuals have been called upon to reflect on their individual life conduct and to define themselves as subjects of these life forms. At the same time, in modernity, individuals experience themselves as a socially formed being who has habitualised essential aspects of their capacity for action and their personality in the process of biographical socialisation. An important branch of research therefore consists in the theoretical determination and empirical reconstruction of the connections between autobiography, subjectification and habitus genesis (-> research project ‘Longitudinal Analysis’, publications: Audehm/Corsten 2018, Jafke et al. 2022).
Biography and Spheres of Life Practice
A biography usually refers to socially typical areas of life such as partnership and family (Corsten 1993), occupation (Corsten 1998), but also leisure time or political and social engagement (Corsten et al. 2008, Beetz et al. 2014). The biographical interplay of these typical spheres of life practice can also be understood as a ‘life arrangement’ (Brose et al. 1993).
Biography and Temporality
Biography is based on an equally complex temporal context. As a description from the present, it addresses other periods of life, mostly past ones. As a narrative of life, it takes place in actu, but also refers to events in life ex ante and ex post. It is both narrative time and narrated time. As narrated time, biography encompasses individual life as a temporal process, which in turn is situated in social time (Brose et al. 1993).
Biography, Life course and Generation
The special temporality of biography manifests itself in its relationship to the life course as a socially structured institution, which in turn is traversed by birth cohorts as a generation in a specific historical context of experience (Holderberg/Corsten 2019, Corsten/Holderberg 2024). During this process, the generation constitutes its own experience of time (Corsten 1999).
Autobiographical Narrative and Mythification
However, it is not only generations that have a collective memory, but also other social groups and entities. Sediments of collective memory can be identified through the mythification of memories in autobiographical narratives (Corsten et al. 2022, Corsten/Pierburg 2023, Corsten/Pierburg 2024). Mythologising often also serves as justification stories in the discursive space of master narratives and counter-narratives (Corsten/Leser/Pierburg in press).