Neglected Feelings. Analyzing Resesearcher Emotions in Biographical Research.

Most biographical researchers attend to the body language of their interview partners in order to facilitate the interview and help them tell their stories. Researchers may also pay attention to their own emotional responses during the interview, but usually this occurs only in their field notes. Rarely do their feelings of shock, irritation, boredom or, for that matter, amusement, excitement and delight find their way into the analysis itself. In this presentation, I will discuss some of the reasons for this neglect as well as the negative consequences it may have for biographical analysis. I will argue that biographical researchers should draw more explicitly and more reflexively on their own emotions as an analytic resource which is necessary for making sense of their informants’ stories.