Interpretive Biography

by Norman K. Denzin

Overview

Like all writing, biographies are interpretive. They require no less than organizing into text the chaos of human existence. In Interpretive Biography Denzin combines one of the oldest techniques in the social sciences and humanities with one of the newest. Bringing in elements of postmodernism and interpretive social science, he reexamines the biographical and autobiographical genres. In addition, the book outlines a new way in which biographies should be conceptualized and shaped.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803933583
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	09/01/1989
Series:	Qualitative Research Methods , #17
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Norman K. Denzin is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Communications, College of Communications Scholar, and Research Professor of Communications, Sociology, and Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. One of the world’s foremost authorities on qualitative research and cultural criticism, he is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including The Qualitative Manifesto; Qualitative Inquiry Under Fire; Reading Race; Interpretive Ethnography; The Cinematic Society; The Alcoholic Self; and a trilogy on the American West. He is past editor of The Sociological Quarterly, co-editor of six editions of the landmark SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, co-editor (with Michael D. Giardina) of 18 books on qualitative inquiry, co-editor (with Yvonna S. Lincoln and Michael D. Giardina) of the methods journal Qualitative Inquiry, founding editor of Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies and International Review of Qualitative Research, editor of four book series, and founding director of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry.

Table of Contents

Assumptions of the Method
A Clarification of Terms
Interpretive Guidelines
Selves, Stories and Experiences
In Conclusion
Representing Lives