'I’m Not the Same, but I’m Not Sorry; My Ideas and My Fight Remain the Same': Exploring Dialogical Positioning in the Self-Transformation of a Former Politically Violent Militant

This article traces the personal and cultural voices expressed in the life-story interview of a former politically violent militant regarding her engagement with and disengagement from the armed struggle. Rather than looking at the macro and meso aspects related to politically motivated violence, we examine micro-narratives which express individual arguments, sociocultural discourses, and negotiations within and between them, that are voiced in the dynamics that take place within the self-system at times of key identity transitions – from being a committed militant to becoming a former militant, from defending violence as a means of achieving political ends to justifying the use of non-violent strategies. In this vein, we highlight how the embodied emotional chords of personal and cultural positions, the development of in-between, promotor and meta-positions, and the positioning and repositioning movements within the dialogical self, facilitate the emergence of new and more adaptive meanings in the personal meaning system of former militants.