Theories, Forms, Functions
Professor: Dr. Sue Doe
Course Description
Autoethnography: “the defining of one’s subjective experience as mediated through language, history, culture, and ethnographic analysis” (Francoise Lionnet)
Welcome to auto-e, the exciting and challenging study of self within the structures and power relationships of culture. We will consider the methodological strategies and challenges associated with this form of study (and will try them ourselves), will examine others’ approaches to the challenging undertaking of autoethnographic writing, will consider theoretical and critical examinations of autoethnographic representations, will originate our own autethnographic projects in directions relevant to our individual interests, and will undertake the semester-long project of examining ourselves within the academic context we now share--CSU. Whew! Hold on to your hats!
As a subject of study, auto-e offers a valuable research strategy, a writing challenge, a useful subject of theoretical and critical study, and a strategy for obtaining alternative accounts of politically fraught narratives. As graduate scholars from a variety of backgrounds, you will work to more deeply understand the autoethnographic turn in field and research studies and will learn from one another’s explorations of larger professional subjects of study. For instance, and these directions are by no means comprehensive, those among you who are students of literature might develop theories of the subject, self, and body, find interest in distinguishing among genres of autobiographical writing and their histories, or consider autoethnographic genres in light of aesthetics or critical analysis and interpretation. Those with an interest in public school education might rehearse autoethnographic approaches for the classroom, especially since these are emerging as an important form of classroom research. Or, using auto-e, educators might build upon the long-standing interest in “teacher identity” particularly as it develops over the course of the career. For creative writers, the interest in life story, memoir, and a host of other autobiographical forms (conversion narrative, manifesto, travel writing, trauma narrative, etc.) make autoethnography a natural addition to the repertoire. Or creative writers might take special interest in the tension between the evocative and the analytic, a central tension in the autoethnographic narrative. Rhetorician/compositionists may see autoethnography as a contested site of research now carried out in the field, as suggested by Farris and Anson, who argue that autoethnographies "are viewed as politically empowering to both teachers and students" (Under Construction 5).
All members of this scholarly discourse community will be expected to more deeply consider our particular stories/stances and their limitations, as well as to ground our discussions in both theory and research. In our E633 classroom, we can look forward to dynamic conversations among and across disciplinary boundaries, enhancing our inquiries and challenging our varied assumptions about autobiographical writing. The one rule is cordiality and collegiality. We can and will disagree, but in the spirit of the autoethnographic impulse we must do so respectfully and with a desire to understand.
Here are central questions of the course that we will return to regularly and that you should consider as you go along:
What are the challenges of self-representation, particularly as situated within cultural analysis?
In what contexts has autoethnography occurred and for what purposes? Where does it not occur and why?
How do we critically and meaningfully read autoethnography?
To what degree is autoethnography a form of performance of self for particular audiences/purposes? How reliable is self-report?
How does the autoethnographic impulse challenge official narratives? Where is it needed?