Analysis of Biographical Narrative Interviews: F. Schütze's Method

Abstract

The article explores the method of analyzing narrative biographical interviews proposed by the German sociologist Fritz Schütze. The focus is on the fact that biographical narrative interviews have a certain specificity: such interviews contain not only 'external' processes of events but also the 'internal reactions' of the informant, i.e., the subject's interpretations of the biography regarding the meaning of the lived experiences; they reflect the interconnections between events in the life history of the biography's subject and the layering of their experience. Analyzing such complex empirical material requires a special analytical approach, which is the method of Fritz Schütze. The article details the key theoretical and methodological constructs introduced by Fritz Schütze, such as life history and life trajectory, structures of the biographical process, preamble, and coda. It examines the main biographical structures that determine the life trajectory: "biographical plans" (the individual's intentions to actively shape their life), "trajectories of suffering" (the influence of external circumstances that limit freedom of action), "models of institutional expectations" (normatively defined life paths), and "creative metamorphoses" (the transformation of personal identity through new opportunities). Emphasis is placed on the importance of these structures in constructing the life trajectory. To illustrate the possibilities of Fritz Schütze's method, the authors provid an example of a fragment of the analysis of the biographical narrative. The authors note that Schütze's methodology is an effective tool for studying biographies, especially in the context of analyzing the life trajectories of successful people or individuals who have found themselves in difficult life circumstances. The relevance of using Fritz Schütze's analytical approach to study the traumatic experiences of contemporary Ukrainians related to the war and adaptation to new realities is emphasized. The authors also highlight the prospects for the development of research aimed at automating analysis processes and applying digital methods to work with large arrays of narrative data in the social sciences.