Hard to be Human : Shaping the Self in an Everchanging Narrative

Sammanfattning: This study examines how an existentialistic perspective in a secular context can be enforcedby interpretations of the Self from a Christian martyr narrative. The existentialistic perspective being the questioning of meaning of life and death. The purpose of is to see how different interpretations can attribute a meaning of Christian martyrdom by using a Christian tradition of self-identification. Two martyr stories are further explored, the story of Kayla Mueller and the story of Father Jacques Hamel. This study presents an analysis of the two martyr narratives, consisting of different perspectives of interpreting the construction of a martyr narrative and a shaping of a narrative self. The two narratives are used to test a theoretical landscape of approaching an ability to attribute meaning of martyrdom and, thus, a meaning of life. Based on theories of the narrative Self, identity and meaning by Ricoeur, Heidegger, Derrida and Taylor, a theoretical framework of pragmatist hermeneutics is applied. An analysis method of mediated narrative analysis by Bamberg (2008) and Page (2018) is used, for the purpose of including situation and interaction in the stories told about the martyrs. The results show that an application of a pragmatist hermeneutic approach is relevant and possible to relate to, also in a contemporary and secular context. This is possible by assuming a process of self-identification, which, by some, is identified as a natural part in a Christian confession. Therefore, a Christian tradition of self-identification is relevant and possible to apply, also in a secular context, when questioning the meaning of life and death.