Biographical Illusions: Sartre and Bourdieu against Narrative Identity

This article explores the ideas on narrative identity of two prominent French philosophers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Pierre Bourdieu. Both independently describe what they call the “biographical illusion,” the idea that the events of life are not structured in the same way as they are presented in stories such as biographies. Sartre and Bourdieu both argue against a common conception of narrative identity. Interestingly, however, Bourdieu presents his notion in part as a critique of Sartre’s ideas about identity. By investigating their similarities and differences, light is shed on the debate concerning criticism of the classical notion of subjectivity in contemporary thought.