Abstract
A technique close to the art of ordinary conversation,the biographical interview is the most problematic of all forms of self-presentation. Asked to disclose themselves in an unequal relation, informants produce a narrative, subject to the conditions of the exchange and dependent on the social position of the interviewer (age, sex, culture, profession). Among sociological misinterpretations due to the nature of the interview: ease of expression taken for mastery of the subject's destiny, factual transformations to the point that the meaning of the biography becomes inverted. Sociology cannot give much credit to such circumstantial artifacts unless the narrative is controlled.
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