List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Discovering "Truth" -- Awakenings -- Three Dimensions of Autobiographical Work -- The Awakening-Story Formula -- The Semiotic Structure of Awakening Stories -- The Awakener as a Social Type of Storyteller -- Autobiographical Communities and Autobiographical Fields -- Methods and Data -- Outline of the Book -- 2 Awakenings: A Cultural History -- Zarathustra -- Plato's Allegory of the Cave -- Foundational Religious Awakenings -- Foundational Political Awakenings -- Freud and the Psychoanalytic Case Study -- Late Modern Awakenings -- Conclusion -- 3 Mnemonic Revisions and Cultural Contentions -- Formulaic Mnemonic Revisions -- Autobiographical Menory and Cultural Contention -- Shaping the Collective Mnemonic Record -- Shaping the Cultural Milieu for Personal Memory -- Conclusion -- 4 Vocabularies of Liminality -- Sociomental Express Elevators -- Sociomental Staircases -- Combining Elevators and Staircases -- Conclusion -- 5 The Temporally Divided Self -- Portraying the Temporally Divided Self -- Conclusion -- 6 Culture and Autobiographic Narrative -- Notes -- References -- Index.

Discovering "truth" -- Awakenings -- Dimensions of autobiographical work -- The awakening-story formula -- The semiotic stricture of awakening stories -- The awakener as a social type of storyteller -- Autobiographical communities and autobiographical fields -- Methods and data -- Outline of the book -- Awakenings: a cultural history -- Zarathustra -- Plato's allegory of the cave -- Foundational religious awakenings -- Foundational political awakenings -- Freud and the psychoanalytic case study -- Late modern awakenings -- Mnemonic revisions and cultural contentions -- Formulaic mnemonic revisions -- Autobiographical memory and cultural contention -- Shaping the collective mnemonic record -- Shaping the cultural milieu for personal memory -- Vocabularies of liminality -- Sociomental express elevators -- Sociomental staircases -- Combining elevators and staircases -- The temporally divided self -- Portraying the temporally divided self -- Culture and autobiographical narrative.