In this thesis, I explore the meanings and experience of health and well-being in the lives of individuals with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Taking an auto/biographical approach and utilising in-depth qualitative online interviews, I draw on the experience and narratives of seventeen individuals with IBD, including myself. The three main themes addressed are 'Living with IBD', 'Becoming a Patient', and 'Coping and Control'. I explore how IBD influences individuals' experience of personal relationships, and their medical encounters and treatments. I reflect on how and why these factors arise and the effect they may have upon the disease and its management and on individuals' feelings of well-being more generally. I look at the resulting illness narratives and the impact of IBD on the daily life experience and the identity of the individual. I interrogate existing research and add to it from my analysis. Throughout, the research highlights the importance of acknowledging the impact of biographical disruption on the life experience and identity of individuals along with changing illness narratives. There are implications for future research and for policy, including the time taken to reach diagnosis, the use of IBD guidelines in diagnosis and treatment, and patient control and choice as a contributing factor to influence future guidelines and treatment plans.

According to Philippe Lejeune’s “autobiographical pact,” a text can only be considered an autobiography when the author, narrator, and character all share the same proper name. Any exceptions are thusly designated as works of fiction, regardless of whatever biographical resemblance may be detected between the author and character. This thesis aims not to challenge this useful generic distinction, but to develop an authoritative system for approaching the oft-neglected side of the equation: works of autobiographical fiction, and autobiographical dramas in particular. I propose to develop a reception-based methodology (the Biographical Grid) for assessing author-character resemblance with as much empiricism as possible. This is done by extracting the author’s biographical material in relation to the chosen fictional character (often the play’s protagonist) via their characterization within the text, and organizing this material within a specially-designed table. Each of these units is then assigned a numerical score based upon its correspondence with the author’s publicly-known biographical data. The result is not only a qualitative value assigned to the degree of resemblance between the character and its author, but moreover indicates precisely which character traits enforce the autobiographical kinship, and which represent conscious deviations from the biographical record as part of the process of fictionalization. This information can then be applied to well-informed analyses of the text’s use of its autobiographically-inspired content. Using Tolstoy’s play, The Light Shines in Darkness, as a case study, I demonstrate the process of building, testing, and applying the grid to assess a work of autobiographical drama. My systematic approach to autobiographical dramas of this kind supports the development of further research into methods of biographical criticism while strengthening analytical readings of individual plays.

How can the structures of graphic narratives help us to interrogate, analyse, and ultimately ground stories of ourselves and our world? By not relying solely on verbal or visual language, but the complex interplay between multiple signification strategies, comics open up possibilities for transcending the limits of any single linguistic mode and more fully enunciating the complex layers of superimposed truths that make up our lived experiences. In this doctoral project, I utilize media-specific analysis of graphic narratives and interrogate the multi-modal communication strategies inherent in comics. The result is a multidisciplinary construction of the structural and semiotic modes of comics as an enactment of contemporary narrative ideals that privilege reader-centric, subjective constructions of meaning. My submission consists of four chapters of written research, to be submitted at the end of January, and a collection of autobiographical narrative works that will form an exhibition which will be shown at the time of the viva in April. The presentation of the textual material is an inseparable component of the content, and a piece of practical work in itself. The chapters can be read in any sequence; for the purposes of this abstract, I will discuss them in alphabetical order. My practice work challenges the traditional use of comics-specific affordances, such as panel borders, gutter, use of space as time, and other verbo-visual techniques by remediating them outwith book and digital book-like objects we associate with graphic narratives. Each chapter in the dissertation is its own book-object that enacts the content as well as relates to the larger body of practice work. Childhood Memoirs—Autobiographical Approaches The use of multiple signification strategies allows for communication that transcends the limits of textual or verbal language and can allow a creator to enunciate what may be unspeakable or incomprehensible, such as moments of trauma. I pay special attention to how subjectivity is presented in graphic memoirs within this context, as the drawn nature of comics allows for shifts in the status of the author/narrator that are unique to the medium. Comics as a Synthetic Medium—A Very Short Introduction The ‘introductory’ chapter contextualizes my research and comics studies more generally within non-binary, non-hierarchical concepts of rhizomatic knowledge structures that utilize the concept of text in the Barthesian sense as a mode of communication rather than solely lexicographic writing. In comics, text and imagery can actively oppose each other, creating a space where new meaning can be synthesized from this tension. This is Derrida’s deconstruction, Benjamin’s inclusion of cultural production in literature, or Barthes’ writerly text. Each utterance on a comics page may convey multiple levels of independent meaning, making it unique among narrative media. By examining the semiotic and structural theories presented by Barthes and Derrida, as well as Benjamin, Deleuze, Witgenstein and others, I develop the case for a comics-specific theory of trans-medial, subjective, deconstructed communication. Mapping the Journey—The Cartography of Autobiography In this chapter, I analyse the mythology of the supposed inductive system of representation in mapping and explore how including a secondary visual semiological system, that of the map, within the primary system of comics impacts reader perception of truth through verifiability. I also explore the intersection of non-representational theory within geography and authentication within autographics. Media Specificity of Non-traditional Graphic Narratives The focus of this chapter is on the impact of disseminatory (re)mediation on the medium of graphic narratives. I assert that neither digital nor print is superior to the other, but deliver different experiences to the reader. Through close analysis of the formal qualities inherent in digital and physical representation of comic content, I articulate the qualities unique to each distribution strategy and theorize ways that creators can take advantage of the media at their disposal. The practical element of my submission takes the form of a collection of objects that utilize a variety of graphic narrative structures outwith traditional comics forms in order to explore facets of my childhood memories. The exhibition will be constituted of several lanterns, dioramas and dolls’ houses, as well as some printed material. I attempt to ground my memories in architecture and place, while aware that the sense of solidity this lends my recollections is a false sense of objective security. To counteract any attempt to present a wholly unified and reliable narratorial self, I present the same places and memories through various angles and media. I make explicit some of the dissonant ‘truths’ myself and other members of my family were presented with, as an attempt to consciously confront the fragility of utilizing such collectively constructed memory to construct a stable self-image.

O estudo da literatura e de objetos artísticos, por um viés da teoria Semiótica greimasiana, prevê que todo sentido é gerado a partir de articulações semióticas que arquitetam um discurso presente em todo e qualquer texto. Desse modo, o presente trabalho propõe uma análise semiótica da autobiografia em quadrinhos de Alison Bechdel, Fun Home:Uma tragicomédia em família. Por meio da metodologia da Semiótica francesa, a presente análise descreve os artifícios discursivos de persuasão do gênero autobiográfico utilizados pela quadrinista norte-americana para convencer o leitor de que está diante de uma história real. Tais artifícios apontam para uma aproximação da realidade por meio de efeitos de sentido predominantemente referenciais. No entanto, Bechdel (2007b) complexifica tal aproximação, ficcionalizando seus personagens por meio da literatura, não só pela própria natureza do enunciado, mas também como artifício discursivo no interior do texto. Além do gênero autobiográfico, analisa-se a estrutura dos quadrinhos e os efeitos de sentido produzidos pelo sincretismo inerente ao gênero, isto é, a relação entre texto verbal e texto visual. Também é analisada a temática lésbica que permeia todo o enunciado e a rede discursiva polêmica que problematiza. Na obra de Bechdel encontram-se, portanto, as relações entre o gênero autobiográfico, a sua textualização por meio do sistema dos quadrinhos e a pertinência entre eles para a literatura que abrange a temática lésbica. / The study of literature and art objects from the standpoint of the Greimasian Semiotic Theory indicates that all meaning is generated from semiotic articulations that construct a discourse in any given text. Thus, this study proposes a semiotic analysis of Alison Bechdels graphic autobiography Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Through the methodology of French semiotics, this analysis describes the discursive devices of persuasion of the autobiographical genre used by the North American cartoonist to convince the reader that they are faced with a real story. Such devices point to an approximation of reality through predominantly referential meaning effects. However, Bechdel (2007b) complicates such an approximation, fictionalizing her characters through literature, not only due to the nature of the utterance, but also as a discursive device within the text. Besides the autobiographical genre, we analyze the structure of comics and the meaning effects produced by the syncretism inherent in the genre, that is, the relationship between verbal text and visual text. Also analyzed are the lesbian issues that permeate the whole utterance and the controversial discursive network that it examine. The proposal is to open a dialogue between language studies, sexuality studies and gender studies. In Bechdel\'s work there is, therefore, the relationship between the autobiographical genre, its textualization through the system of comics and their relevance for a literature encompassing lesbian issues.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2017-02-14T19:15:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Carlos Francisco Fonseca de Azevedo S?.pdf: 719071 bytes, checksum: 8edd903c8fc38fcb40be387e3da1f0b4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-14T19:15:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Carlos Francisco Fonseca de Azevedo S?.pdf: 719071 bytes, checksum: 8edd903c8fc38fcb40be387e3da1f0b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-27 / CAPES / We present in this research how Albert Speer managed to, through writing his self-biography and his diary in Spandau prison, give meaning to his life trajectory. Within his books, Speer builds and shows an image of himself distant from the great Nazi crimes, as a continuous defense since the Nuremberg Trials. / Buscamos apresentar neste trabalho como Albert Speer procurou, atrav?s da escrita de sua autobiografia e de seu di?rio na cadeia de Spandau, dar sentido a sua trajet?ria de vida. Ao longo destes dois livros Speer tenta construir e apresentar uma imagem de si afastada dos grandes crimes cometidos pelo nazismo, como uma continua??o de sua defesa no Tribunal de Nuremberg

Migrant women use life writing not only to share pieces of their own lives, but also to write powerful narratives which confront racism, patriarchal oppression, and US imperialism. The four texts I have selected represent skillful negotiation between drastically different languages, cultures, and social systems, evinced both through the experiences the authors represent within the text and through their careful rhetorical and narrative strategies, which are tailored for particular audiences. As these narratives demonstrate, migrant women can use life writing to contest and destabilize dominant narratives of history and race. In I’ve Come a Long Way (1942), Chinese author Helena Kuo demonstrates the worth, dignity, and superiority of Chinese culture in order to convince US readers to ally with China in their fight against Japan. Kuo’s work was intended not only to garner military support for China, but also to create a more positive view of the Chinese people. Rosario Morales and Aurora Levins Morales, a mother and daughter born in New York City and Puerto Rico, respectively, write together in Getting Home Alive (1986), layering stories from the mainland United States and the island of Puerto Rico while protesting US imperialism and US military presence on the island. By enacting resistance from a variety of subject positions, the authors are able to share pieces of their life stories while also creating an alternate history of Puerto Rico, one that reveals the violence and imperial domination of the US government. In When Heaven and Earth Changed Places (1989), former Vietcong collaborator Le Ly Hayslip tells the story of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese villager, explaining why some Vietnamese resisted US forces. Through her narrative, Hayslip transforms herself from a Vietcong enemy into a reliable narrator for US readers, detailing her own suffering, empathizing with her US readership, and encouraging peace and forgiveness between nations, while still questioning the ethics of US involvement in the war. By retelling stories from her childhood on the US-Mexico border in Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera (1995), Mexican author Norma Elia Cantú challenges the impermeability of borders, both between fact and fiction and between nations. By simultaneously retelling and fictionalizing her past, Cantú is able to preserve and reclaim her childhood while creating a subversive counternarrative of border life which contests dominant governmental and patriarchal narratives. All of these authors use life writing in an innovative way, tailoring their texts to the political and social context in which they were publishing and striving to build a relationship with readers at a particular time in US history. By challenging conventional, governmental, and media representations of events and contesting existing social structures, these authors provide a more comprehensive understanding of US history and society.

This thesis establishes parallel claims about how women’s autobiography as a genreintersects with fiction as a means to share an author’s opinions on issues of race, gender,class, and topics that the publishing industry deems ‘controversial’, using Zora Neale Hurston’s works Their Eyes Were Watching God and Dust Tracks on a Road as points of comparison. Throughout this thesis, I will show that Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel that by virtue of its content is a political novel because of how it represents an overlooked demographic of people and the novel’s ripple effect on later black female writers as one of the first novels that celebrates black female joy. TEWWG does the work of literary representation that publishers did not allow DToaR to do because of the fear that the book would not sell as well if it included more of Hurston’s own political perspective. The second claim that I make is that TEWWG is first dismissed because of its lack of ‘seriousness’ in subject matter by Hurston’s peers, but its use of nature metaphors like the horizon and the tree and motifs like desire and dreams allow for issues of gender, race, class, and love to be discussed because they are shrouded in a literary image disguise.

As a child of God I know that every single human being was created by a loving Heavenly Father and that each of us has a purpose to fulfill during our lifetime. Part of my individual purpose is to share myself and my testimony of the gospel with others through the medium of the written word. My life, like yours, is a unique composition that requires a consistent and mindful application of agency to direct and edit its progress. I have made use of my agency as I have maneuvered the many conflicts and plot twists that I have faced during my lifetime. Learning about and embracing the importance of creative writing in my life is the result of the choices I have made along the way. As you read this work, this statement of purpose, you will learn about the moments in my life that have led me to this page. They have included trials, celebrations, and resolutions that have redirected my journey until I reached this chapter of my life to became the person I am today: a daughter of God, a daughter of man, a sister, an aunt, a teacher, and, most recently, a writer.

My artistic practice creates relationships between the abstract and the personal. I define the abstract in the context of my studio work as a material exploration of color and form. The personal encompasses autobiography in relation to my sense of time and place. In this text, I use my concept of oceanic tides (considered as a temporal and spatial shift between states) to chart my activities as an artist. These activities include making objects that change in character over time, and durational work including performance and video. Interwoven throughout Tides are narrative passages based on my personal experiences, including witnessing the total eclipse of the sun, a purple garden, a coincidence, and the death of a friend.

The thesis Mapping the Self-Portrait: Navigating Identity and Autobiography in Visual Art is a practical project. It explores the relationship between autobiography and self- portraiture, and how these notions of the self can be represented in visual art. The exhibition 360 Potential Truisms forms the major component in this thesis, and is accompanied by a written exegesis. This exegesis explores notions of the self-portrait and autobiography in relation to identity, with focus on a post-structural approach to fragmentation and movement. Artworks have been developed to reflect a shift towards an idea of the fragmented self, involving drawing, photography, and text to allow a constantly changing interpretation of self-portraiture.