著者

北山 由美

出版者

日本教育社会学会

雑誌

教育社会学研究 (ISSN:03873145)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.67, pp.5-24, 2000-10-30 (Released:2011-03-18)

参考文献数

24

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“Character, ” the key term of this paper, has a double meaning in literary criticism: a dramatis personae in a story, and the dispositions of each person. Through the use of this term, this paper provides a sociological narrative study of characterization. In other words, it is an attempt to understand how we force certain characters upon the self and others when we want to comprehend them.Normally, “character, ” as a person's disposition, is attributed to the individual. From the standpoint of narrative studies, however, it is a construction which includes a story-line. In order to understand the characteristic nature of the self or of others who are the dramatis personae in our narrative landscapes, the method we usually employ is to organise the acts, events, impressions, information and put them into the form of a narrative. When we say, “it is rude of him, not only to go back home alone, but also to make an excuse, ” the subject is identified as such not because rudeness is his nature, but rather because his nature is, in fact, produced by that narrative description. Therefore, it can be said that characterization constitutes combining various kinds of elements and creating one's or other's nature by shaping a narrative.Characterization contains a connection not only to oneself but also refers to human relationships. In sharing a description about someone's character, we can have a conversation or interaction through talking about the topic. That is, the character, which has been constructed in the form of a narrative sequence, can construct another sequence of human interaction.In conclusion, characterization is the production of the self and others as having certain original qualities which we attribute to us or them in our narrative landscapes. This procedure of understanding and controlling people should become an object of study itself for the sociology of education, since education is one of the fields where characterization is legitimised. Examining the phenomenon could be of benefit to the critical study of education.