Teaching and Learning Method for Exploring Narrative Identity in the Multi-Persona Era: Focusing on Daniel Kehlmann’s Ruhm

This study addresses the issue of identity confusion faced by modern individuals in the ‘multi-persona era,’ where they construct various selves across online and offline spaces due to advancements in digital technology. It particularly focuses on the identity crisis of Generation MZ, who have grown up as digital natives, and aims to propose a literary educational solution centered on Daniel Kehlmann’s novel Fame (Ruhm). The theoretical foundation of this study is grounded in Paul Ricoeur’s theory of triple mimesis and the concept of narrative identity. Ricoeur perceives human identity not as a fixed essence, but as a “narrative identity” that is continuously reconstructed through stories over time. The theory of triple mimesis consists of three stages: Mimesis I (the prefiguration or pre-understanding of the world of action), Mimesis II (the configuration that shapes disordered events into a unified story), and Mimesis III (the refiguration, a process where readers reinterpret their own lives through the narrative). Furthermore, narrative identity has a dual structure, encompassing both sameness (idem-identity, or unchanging characteristics over time) and selfhood (ipse-identity, or ethical subjectivity). The teaching and learning Method focuses on four of the nine stories in Fame that vividly reveal an individual’s identity confusion and fragmentation in the modern media environment: “Voices” (“Stimmen”), “The Way Out” (“Der Ausweg”), “A Contribution to the Debate” (“Ein Beitrag zur Debatte”), and “How I Lied and Died” (“Wie ich log und starb”). First, the narrative of Ebling, the protagonist of “Voices”, is analyzed through the lens of triple mimesis and narrative identity. Based on this analysis, a corresponding teaching and learning Method is proposed. The teaching and learning Method is designed as a cyclical process: My Life (Mimesis I) → Reading the Literary Work (Mimesis II) → Reinterpreting My Life (Mimesis III). Before the lesson (Mimesis I), students will engage in activities to explore their own multiple selves in the context of the modern media environment and share their personal experiences. During the lesson (Mimesis II), the focus shifts to analyzing how the narrative identities of the characters in the novel are constructed. After the lesson (Mimesis III), the process culminates in a comprehensive reflection on the students’ own narrative identities and ethical responsibilities, achieved by fusing the world of the text with their own life experiences. By integrating German literary texts with Ricoeur’s narrative philosophy, this study makes a significant academic contribution by proposing narrative identity education as a potential solution to the multiple identity challenges of university students in the digital age.