Rearticulations of linear temporality

A study of time constructions based on the example of a trans_biographical narrative

Abstract

Many trans and non-binary people share the experience of having to categorize and justify their understanding of their own gender in accordance to the hegemonic gender order which also dictates the framework of their self-narration and their own biography. In order to keep one’s own life story narratable, it is often necessary to refer to certain narrative patterns that are characterized by an intertwining of chronoand cisnormative logics. Drawing on a biographical-narrative interview, this article reconstructs specific logics of temporalization in trans_biographical narratives. This example illustrates how within the omnipresent frame of reference posed by chronoand cisnormativity, trans biographers can successfully subvert and transform this frame of reference in order to construct a self-empowering biographical self-narration.