Embodying the narrative self, narrating the embodied self

This paper explores the mutually shaping relationship between embodiment and narrativity in the formation of selfhood. Although previous research has tended to treat the embodied and narrative self as interacting, yet distinct, layers, we argue for a more integrated account in which each is grounded in and shaped by the other, characterizing them as mutually shaping. Drawing on phenomenological concepts such as body schema and habituality, we first demonstrate how bodily dispositions support the temporal continuity and expressive unfolding of the narrative self, including both the “narrated I” and the “narrating I.” In this view, narrative identity emerges from embodied engagement with the world rather than from purely cognitive processes. In the second half of the paper, we reverse the direction of influence, examining how identification with narrative figures can reshape body image and bodily orientation through mechanisms such as the Proteus effect. However, we also show that such narrative-induced transformations are constrained by sociocultural norms and master narratives that delimit which bodies and identities are deemed intelligible or aspirational. Through this analysis, we propose an account of selfhood as fundamentally embodied, narratively structured, and constrained by systems of power, visibility, and cultural representation.