The life stories of Resina

Abstract

The article explores the process of recording and interpreting life stories, focusing on the author's long interaction with Resina, a privileged informant. Life stories are not simply personal narratives, but complex products resulting from the interaction between the ethnographer and the informant. The personal lives of ethnographers and informants influence each other; and shared emotions and experiences affect the narratives. Using three versions of Resina's life story collected over a fourteen-year period, the author shows how each version adds new nuances and understandings, reflecting both changes in Resina's life and the evolution of the relationship with the informant. The essay emphasizes the importance of life stories as tools for understanding the historical and dialogic dimensions of social life, as well as providing a critical look at the role of the ethnographer in the construction of life narrations.