Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections on Life and Work

396 Pages·2008·6.974 MB·English

by  Carolyn Ellis

R E V I S I O N
WRITING LIVES
Ethnographic Narratives
Series Editors:
Arthur P. Bochner & Carolyn Ellis
University of South Florida
Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives publishes narrative representations of qualitative
research projects. The series editors seek manuscripts that blur the boundaries between
humanities and social sciences. We encourage novel and evocative forms of expressing
concrete lived experience, including autoethnographic, literary, poetic, artistic, visual,
performative, critical, multivoiced, conversational, and coconstructed representations. We
are interested in ethnographic narratives that depict local stories; employ literary modes
of scene setting, dialogue, character development, and unfolding action; and include the
author’s critical reflections on the research and writing process, such as research ethics,
alternative modes of inquiry and representation, reflexivity, and evocative storytelling.
Proposals and manuscripts should be directed to [email protected].
Volumes in this series:
Erotic Mentoring: Women’s Transformations in the University, Janice Hocker Rushing
Intimate Colonialism: Head, Heart, and Body in West African Development Work, Laurie L. Charlés
Last Writes: A Daybook for a Dying Friend, Laurel Richardson
A Trickster in Tweed: The Quest for Quality in a Faculty Life, Thomas F. Frentz
Guyana Diaries: Women’s Lives Across Difference, Kimberly D. Nettles
Writing Qualitative Inquiry: Self, Stories, and Academic Life, H. L. Goodall, Jr.
Accidental Ethnography: An Inquiry into Family Secrecy, Christopher N. Poulos
Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections on Life and Work, Carolyn Ellis
R e v i s i o n
Autoethnographic Reflections
on Life and Work

Carolyn Ellis
First published 2009 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ellis, Carolyn, 1950–
Revision : autoethnographic reflections on life and work / Carolyn Ellis.
p. cm. -- (Writing lives : ethnographic narratives)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59874-039-4 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-59874-040-0
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Ethnology—Authorship. 2. Ethnology—Biographical methods. I. Title.
GN307.7.E437 2009
305.8—dc22
2008042276
ISBN 978-1-59874-039-4 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-59874-040-0 paperback
Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction: Reflecting on Meta-Autoethnography 11
part one: Growing Up in a Rural Community, Getting an Education,
and Finding My Place in Community Ethnography
Chapter 1: Goin’ to the Store, Sittin’ on the Street, and Runnin’ the Roads:
Growing Up in a Rural Southern Neighborhood 19
Chapter 2: Talking Across Fences: Race Matters 35
Chapter 3: Investigating the Fisher Folk and Coping with Ethical Quagmires 61
part two: Becoming an Autoethnographer
Chapter 4: Reliving Final Negotiations 81
Chapter 5: Renegotiating Final Negotiations: From Introspection to
Emotional Sociology 95
part three: Surviving and Communicating Family Loss
Chapter 6: Surviving the Loss of My Brother 121
Chapter 7: Rereading “There Are Survivors”: Cultural and Evocative Responses 141
Chapter 8: Rewriting and Re-Membering Mother 165
Chapter 9: Coconstructing and Reconstructing “The Constraints of
Choice in Abortion” 195
part four: Doing Autoethnography as a Social Project
Chapter 10: Breaking Our Silences/Speaking with Others 227
Chapter 11: Learning to Be “With” in Personal and Collective Grief 259
Chapter 12: Connecting Autoethnographic Performance with Community Practice 287
part five: Reconsidering Writing Practices, Relational Ethics, and Rural Communities
Chapter 13: Writing Revision and Researching Ethically 301
Chapter 14: Returning Home and Revisioning My Story 319
Notes 355
References 363
Name Index by Judy Perry 381
Subject Index by Judy Perry 387
About the Author 395
Page Intentionally Left Blank
For
Laurel Richardson
Norman Denzin
Arthur Bochner
My three muses who laid the groundwork and paved the way—
and for all our students who have taken up the journey.
Sokrates: Please assume, then, for the sake of argument, that there is in our souls
a block of wax, in one case larger, in another smaller, in one case the wax is purer,
in another more impure and harder, in some cases softer, and in some of proper
quality . . . Let us, then, say that this is the gift of Mnemosyne (Memory), the mother
of the Mousai (Muses), and that whenever we wish to remember anything we see
or hear or think of in our own minds, we hold this wax under the perceptions and
thoughts and imprint them upon it, just as we make impressions from seal rings; and
whatever is imprinted we remember and know as long as its image lasts, but whatever
is rubbed out or cannot be imprinted we forget and do not know.
—Plato, Theaetetus 191c (trans. Fowler)
Acknowledgments
Il ove writing but I also love finishing a writing project and anticipating comments and
feedback from new and older readers alike! It is with deep gratitude that I acknowl-
edge my friends, colleagues, and students who have assisted with the completion of this
book. First, those who read and commented on every page: Thanks to Laurel Richard-
son for always asking the right questions and getting to the heart of the matter; to Lisa
Tillmann for her superb editing skills and probing observations about what it means to
do ethical research; to Judy Tanur for pointing out just the right word to use and helping
me to reconstruct history by jogging my memory; to Mitch Allen for being supportively
critical, having a sense of humor, and being willing to take risks; to Arthur Bochner for
his incisive feedback and editing genius and for caring as much about my work as he
does his own.
I have dedicated this book to my three muses: Arthur Bochner, Norman Denzin, and
Laurel Richardson. They are the three readers I keep in my mind as I write. I ask how
they will interpret what I say, what questions they will ask, and how they will prod me
to think deeper and wider. Then I ask if I have met their standards of excellence. I want
to thank them for believing in the interpretive project; for paving the way with their
words and actions; for acknowledging that scholarship should be caring, meaningful,
and concerned with justice; and for being good friends as well as colleagues. I’d also like
to thank Tom Frentz, H. L. (Bud) Goodall, Marilyn Myerson, Ron Pelias, Chris Poulos,
and Karen Scott-Hoy for good conversations over the years about my work. My depart-
ment chair, Kenneth Cissna, and my colleagues at University of South Florida deserve
recognition for providing a supportive atmosphere of collegiality that encourages cre-
ativity and risk-taking.
I also acknowledge all the graduate students from University of South Florida who
have inspired me and made me feel that the work I do is worthwhile. I want to thank, in
particular, Tony Adams, Robin Boylorn, Christine Davis, Laura Ellingson, Mary Poole,
Carol Rambo, Lisa Tillmann, and Jillian Tullis Owen, whose work and conversations
directly inspired some of the ideas in this book. Additionally, I express my gratitude to
Michael Arrington, Deborah Austin, Julia Barnhill, Korrie Bauman, Leigh Berger, Rachel
Binns, Matthew Brooks, Dionel Cotanda, Keith Cherry, Elizabeth Curry, Elissa Foster,
9