Seeing the light : the social logic of personal discovery

254 Pages·2014·1.1 MB·English

by  Thomas, DeGloma

Seeing the Light
Seeing the Light
The Social Logic
of Personal Discovery
T h o m a s D e G l o m a
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
t h o m a S D e G L o m a is assistant professor of sociology at Hunter
College, City University of New York.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2014 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2014.
Printed in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-1 3: 978-0 -2 26-1 7574-4 (cloth)
ISBN-1 3: 978-0 -2 26-1 7588-1 (paper)
ISBN-1 3: 978-0 -2 26-1 7591-1 (e-b ook)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226175911.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DeGloma, Thomas, author.
Seeing the light : the social logic of personal discovery /
Thomas DeGloma.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-226-17574-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-17588-1
(pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-17591-1 (e-book) 1. Autonomy
(Psychology) 2. Self-actualization (Psychology) 3. Religious awakening.
I. Title.
BF575.A88D46 2014
158.1—dc23 2014012388
a This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1 992
(Permanence of Paper).
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Discovering “Truth” 1
Awakenings 1
Three Dimensions of Autobiographical Work 5
The Awakening-S tory Formula 8
The Semiotic Structure of Awakening Stories 14
The Awakener as a Social Type of Storyteller 18
Autobiographical Communities and Autobiographical Fields 21
Methods and Data 27
Outline of the Book 32
2 Awakenings: A Cultural History 34
Zarathustra 37
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave 40
Foundational Religious Awakenings 43
Foundational Political Awakenings 48
Freud and the Psychoanalytic Case Study 53
Late Modern Awakenings 57
Conclusion 63
3 Mnemonic Revisions and Cultural Contentions 64
Formulaic Mnemonic Revisions 69
Autobiographical Memory and Cultural Contention 74
Shaping the Collective Mnemonic Record 79
ConTenTs
Shaping the Cultural Milieu for Personal Memory 88
Conclusion 94
4 Vocabularies of Liminality 96
Sociomental Express Elevators 102
Sociomental Staircases 110
Combining Elevators and Staircases 121
Conclusion 126
5 The Temporally Divided Self 127
Portraying the Temporally Divided Self 132
Conclusion 148
6 Culture and Autobiographical Narrative 150
Notes 159 References 207 Index 237
vi
Illustrations
Table 1 Online storytelling spaces 30
Figure 1 Structure of an awakening narrative 14
Figure 2 William Holman Hunt’s The Awakening Conscience 15
Figure 3 Autobiographical revisions and contending trajectories 68
Figure 4 Awakenings and reawakenings 87
Figure 5 Sociomental express elevators and sociomental
staircases 101
Figure 6 Michelangelo’s The Conversion of Saul 118
Figure 7 Depiction of Siddhārtha Gautama’s initial expedition out
of his father’s castle 119
Figure 8 Depiction of Siddhārtha Gautama leaving his ascetic
comrades 120
Figure 9 Brooke displays her temporally divided self 135
Figure 10 Victor displays his past self at war 138
Figure 11 Iraq War veteran Aaron Hughes creates art for peace 140
Figure 12 Iraq war veteran Ethan McCord speaks as a part of
“Operation Recovery” 141
Figure 13 An ex-“ homophobe” rallies at a Chicago gay pride
parade 142
Acknowledgments
No book is possible without the vital support of one’s com-
munity of colleagues, friends, and family. I am fortunate to
have received insightful comments and suggestions from
several people. Most significantly, I owe an extraordinary
debt of gratitude to Eviatar Zerubavel, who has been a truly
giving and inspirational mentor and friend. In addition to
providing an immeasurable amount of constructive guid-
ance and intellectual direction, Eviatar always encouraged
me to stick with this project and to take intellectual risks
with my work in general. He has shown me, by example,
how to follow my passion in an academic world that often
punishes intellectual risk taking and marginalizes those
who choose to take one of the (unfortunately) many paths
less traveled. My sociological imagination has been deeply
influenced by Eviatar’s remarkable ability to see social pat-
terns and explore the fascinating social dimensions of men-
tal life. A special word of thanks also goes to Allan Horwitz,
Ann Mische, Arlene Stein, and Robin Wagner-P acifici for
reading past drafts of the manuscript in its entirety and
providing invaluable insight. Each of them provided com-
ments that helped me, in different ways, to hone my analy-
sis of the cultural and symbolic dimensions of the narratives
and images that grace these pages. I am also very grateful
for helpful discussions with several people, including (in
alphabetical order) Rachel Brekhus, Wayne Brekhus, Yael
Bromberg, Andrea Catone, Karen Cerulo, Dan Chambliss,
Lynn Chancer, Karen Danna, Audrey Devine-E ller, Jeffrey
K. Dowd, Asia Friedman, Judith Gerson, Daina Cheyenne
ix