On Narratives and the Sense of Self

A case is made that encountering the narrative of another person is one of the ways the Self discovers itself. In finding traces of another within oneself, as one does in encountering the narrative of another, the Self is able to appreciate its own meaning. But the narrative represents more than merely capturing another s story. In meeting the eyes and hearing the story of another, one not only takes responsibility for the Other; one begins to assume responsibility for oneself. The encounter inherent in the narrative, therefore, gives birth to the devotion of one person to another and makes possible the discovery of what one defines as being human.