Life Narrative and the Digital: Outlining the Contours of an Emerging Field

This cluster emerged from a two-day international workshop and conference, “Life Narrative and the Digital 2023”, which took place at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in September 2023, and which was aimed at stimulating a conversation on the ‘possibilities, uses, and challenges of digital methods and technologies for auto/biographical research and practice.’ The contributions assembled in this cluster continue, and in many ways intensify, such an inter- and multi-disciplinary exchange between life-writing scholarship and digitally-oriented research. Taken together, they offer a panoramic vision of the diverse, and often highly innovative, scholarly work that is situated at the crossroads of auto/biography studies and digital technologies. They highlight the rich spectrum of source types, (cultural, historical, and geographical) contexts, methodological approaches, and themes that characterise this field of investigation, from (co-)constructing and (re-)presenting life narratives via social media and computer games to applying digital tools and methods that aid the study of lives and/or life writing. The cluster makes a timely contribution to an increasingly vibrant area of research that bridges traditional and digital humanities.