How does a narrative serve as a way to uncover and construct a person's identity? How do life and life-story influence each other? Addressing these and other issues related to the place of narratives in understanding human lives, this volume focuses on identity and gender.

Chapters explore such issues as: how women construct the lives of other women in biographical work; how individuals conduct their life episodes in patterns similar to the plots of stories; how the women's movement influenced three women's adult lives; and how girls' sense of themselves change as they move into adolescence.