Narrating life stories in between the fictional and the autobiographical

Abstract

This article discusses the processes of identity formation in different textual narratives, particularly in the intersections of fictional and epistolary texts, the in-between spaces where the autobiographical self becomes constituted. An important question concerns how to write about other people's lives and engage with the different textual narratives they have left behind. The Finnish writer Helmi Krohn (1871—1967) and her fictional and particularly epistolary texts offer a case study for exploring these methodological issues. In her letters to her artist colleagues, she constructs a narrative connecting her novels and her own life. I will also explore my narrative role by considering how as a historian I strive to make ethically valid analyses at the intersections of these different types of materials.