Buy new:
-11% $24.99
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$24.99 with 11 percent savings
List Price: $27.95

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 4 left in stock (more on the way).
$$24.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$24.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$19.76
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Shipped fast and reliably through the Amazon Prime program! Book may contain some writing, highlighting, and or cover damage. Shipped fast and reliably through the Amazon Prime program! Book may contain some writing, highlighting, and or cover damage. See less
FREE delivery Wednesday, May 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 23 hrs 51 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$24.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$24.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Paul John Eakin
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in Narrative Paperback – October 15, 2008

by Paul John Eakin (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$24.99","priceAmount":24.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"24","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2Bwk%2F3yVsizq84CueRcO997xA9XwwT%2Bwz505W553WvKCQ%2FzQqKxFD95Wkv4%2BW56ayMR2LArr7AbTUjNHI%2BYp%2BbHppvg%2BT1EQNv8xID729hVU59wfiNakog5W8BgPpUhPsdQuRzgGWqjY%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$19.76","priceAmount":19.76,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"76","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2Bwk%2F3yVsizq84CueRcO997xA9XwwT%2BwzGsUwg0kcTbPs8Rkgfkp8IElDB2N5TQHo3Hf5c8pxJssEe7eQq97DVBaPK2DSKDInmEcTzIbfmmbbxxSJGhRkEPkq5gYr62Oam%2BtfOt2CKHARHwWgoMi7mXfsuCBD0p5QaD2eIRSvM41tIZ62wGVR9stR4JhT5vnz","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Autobiography is naturally regarded as an art of retrospect, but making autobiography is equally part of the fabric of our ongoing experience. We tell the stories of our lives piecemeal, and these stories are not merely about our selves but also an integral part of them. In this way we "live autobiographically"; we have narrative identities.

In this book, noted life-writing scholar Paul John Eakin explores the intimate, dynamic connection between our selves and our stories, between narrative and identity in everyday life. He draws on a wide range of autobiographical writings from work by Jonathan Franzen, Mary Karr, and André Aciman to the New York Times series "Portraits of Grief" memorializing the victims of 9/11, as well as the latest insights into identity formation from the fields of developmental psychology, cultural anthropology, and neurobiology. In his account, the self-fashioning in which we routinely, even automatically, engage is largely conditioned by social norms and biological necessities. We are taught by others how to say who we are, while at the same time our sense of self is shaped decisively by our lives in and as bodies. For Eakin, autobiography is always an act of self-determination, no matter what the circumstances, and he stresses its adaptive value as an art that helps to anchor our shifting selves in time.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    204 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Cornell University Press
  4. Publication date
    October 15, 2008
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0801474787
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0801474781
  9. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in Narrative
$24.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
Only 4 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Pastoral Care: Telling the Stories of Our Lives
$29.59
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this fascinating, lucid, and deeply humanistic extension of his earlier work on autobiography, Paul John Eakin illuminates the acts by which we become players in a dynamic narrative identity system that is fundamental to our sense of self. Eakin energetically pursues the broadest questions, deftly incorporating insights from neurobiology and anthropology to help us see the ways that autobiography is an integral, adaptive part of our experience as we live it, and of our creation of a future."

--Jeffrey Wallen, Hampshire College, author of Closed Encounters: Literary Politics and Public Culture

"Living Autobiographically is a wide-ranging and compelling meditation on the grounds for believing that various registers of narrative are essential to our sense of who we are. As ever, Paul John Eakin is leading reflection on life writing into new places."

--David Parker, Chinese University of Hong Kong, author of The Self in Moral Space: Life Narrative and the Good

Review

Living Autobiographically is a wide-ranging and compelling meditation on the grounds for believing that various registers of narrative are essential to our sense of who we are. As ever, Paul John Eakin is leading reflection on life writing into new places.

-- David Parker, Chinese University of Hong Kong, author of The Self in Moral Space: Life Narrative and the Good

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cornell University Press; 1st edition (October 15, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 204 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801474787
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801474781
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Paul John Eakin

Paul John Eakin

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
6 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Cameron Patterson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Nonfiction Writers
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book has really helped me to form my own opinions on why I should write creative nonfiction!
Helpful
 Report
Michael Revelle
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2017
Verified Purchase
Excellent
Helpful
 Report
Elaine Light
4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2014
Verified Purchase
The book provides a thoughtful look at narrative theory from an autobiographical context. Much worthwhile information and a good level of readability mark this book. I especially appreciated his own self-examples.
Helpful
 Report
Nick Gargala
5.0 out of 5 stars Great purchase!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2015
Verified Purchase
Great purchase!!
Helpful
 Report