Selves In The Making: A Critical Analysis Of Barack Obama’s Ascendancy To Power

ABSTRACT

The research was designed to explore how Barack Obama constructs his self identities which

enable him to get to power. This construction is reflected in his self life-writings including

Dreams from My Father: A story of Race and Inheritance, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts

on Reclaiming the AmericanDream and Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to

RenewAmerica’s Promise. Postcolonial theories on identity construction were used for the

reason that they reflect the multiple nature of individual identities. Theories of narratology

were also used in a bid to highlight the politics that inheres in self life-writing. The

dissertation’s thrust therefore was on how Obama deploys narrative that suits his purposebeing

the President of the United States of America. It was therefore concluded that

autobiography, through narrative, can play a critical role in constructing individual identities.