“Trajectory of suffering” and educational route in K.’s biographical narrative
Alexandra Mitsiali
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
MEMORIAMEDIA Review 6. Art.2. 2021
photo: Andreas Maratos / Memória Imaterial edition
This paper summarizes the “process structures” in the context of Fritz Schϋtze’s “Narrative Analysis” and investigates in greater detail one of these, the “trajectory of suffering”, on which the German sociologist himself focuses his studies. Subsequently, the paper presents the “trajectory of suffering” in the biographical narrative of a second-generation woman of Albanian origin studying at a Greek university and goes on to trace her educational route from a stigmatized national to a transnational identity. The analysis clarifies K.’s different experiences in the course of her educational trajectory from primary school to university, depicting a slow and difficult displacement from the state of insecurity, shame and concealment of her national identity to that of self-esteem and emancipation.
Keywords: biographical narrative, trajectory of suffering, immigrant, Albania, transnational identity