This thesis explores the possibilities of embodied writing for social inquiry. Using an examination of the social production of bodily pain to exemplify my approach, and drawing upon autobiographical writing, I develop an embodied writing practice and theorize its implications for decolonizing knowledge production. Following a phenomenologically informed interpretive sociology, I attend closely to language and the construction of meaning through reflexive engagement with pain as a social phenomenon. I also utilize mindfulness meditative practice methodologically to centre the body within social research and intervene in the mind/body split which underwrites much Western knowledge production and reproduces normative, medicalized relations to bodily knowledge. I suggest that by undoing those traditional boundaries demarcating the possibilities of knowledge production, and attending to our epistemological locations which are themselves deeply political, we might generate differently imagined relations to embodiment.

In the past two decades or so, feminist historians have sifted through the copious illustrations of the turbulent, emotion-ridden years of early nineteenth-century American revivalism to devote considerable attention to the rise of female evangelism. Despite the notable upsurge, scholars generally remain untutored about the plethora of powerful female preachers who devoted their lives to advancing the kingdom of God. This dissertation seeks to resurrect the voice of one such woman: Dorothy Ripley (1767- 1831), an evangelist from Whitby, England, whose personal and evangelical awakening rivaled the revolutionary power of the revivalism sweeping the new Republic. Citing her direct mandate from God to preach, Dorothy grasped religion and reshaped it into a spiritually, culturally, and politically altering device. She became the first woman to preach before the U.S. Congress, composed five literary volumes (most of which she published herself and in multiple editions), crossed the Atlantic as many as nineteen times, and traveled up and down the Eastern Seaboard to preach among the different levels of society in a variety of settings. As an unlicensed, unsanctioned preacher, Dorothy defied powerful social and religious conventions by her solitary travel, scriptural exegesis, public performances, and presumption of the patriarchally assigned and protected role of preacher. She strove to proclaim the gospel even at the expense of reputation, family ties, home and hearth, marriage and motherhood, and personal security. Her rebelliousness allowed her to rise above the backstage role commonly assigned to, and accepted by, women of the early Republic. Her works serve as cultural artifacts by providing eyewitness accounts spotlighting the problems inherent in the formative years of a Republic reeling with the headiness of self-rule: the tension between Protestantism and American capitalism, the conflict between an emerging elite and the increasingly dissatisfied lower class, the misogyny of the cult of domesticity and separate spheres, the embryonic stages of widespread social reform, and the virulent ethnocentrism of the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny. Through an examination of her spiritual autobiographies, this dissertation seeks to enrich scholarly understanding of women’s influence in the evolution of evangelization, abolitionism, women’s rights, and social service.

This study analyzes the contribution of Teresa de Cartagena, a deaf Spanish nun and author of the first known piece of writing by a Spanish woman. First, the work is put into its cultural and literary context. Second, the term "autohagiography," a hybrid of "autobiography" and "hagiography" is applied in order to understand that the figure that Teresa de Cartagena employs to express her spiritual fight against sadness. It is conclueded that Teresa de Cartagena constructs herself as if she were a saint, and she uses herself as a model for the faithful and the infirm.

Background: Since the end of the 1990`s the self-harm among adolescents have increased. Research is needed on how to improve the ability to care for these patients. That is why it is important to investigate how patients who self-harm and the next of kin are encountered by the caregivers. Aim: The aim of this study was to illuminate the experiences of encounters with caregivers at self-harm. Method: The study was based on narratives, which in this case means analysis of autobiographies. Five autobiographies were analyzed in accordance with a description by Dahlborg-Lyckhage. Four of these were written by self-harmers and one by a next of kin. Results: Three themes and twelve subthemes emerged which describe both negative and positive experiences of encounters with caregivers. The themes were resignation, impotence and consideration. Negative attitudes and unprofessional manners were often experienced by both the self-harmers and the next of kin. This led to experiences of disappointment, disrespect and powerlessness. When the caregivers confirmed and displayed understanding, the self-harmers and next of kin experienced consideration in the encounter. Conclusion: As a caregiver it is very important to keep in mind that all patients and their next of kin are individuals. The caregivers need to be professional, display understanding and support. More research increase knowledge and understanding and results hopefully in caring encounters. Keywords: adolescents, autobiography, next of kin, nursing staff, self-injury.

Thesis (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

When a writer, usually a woman, uses fairy tales as a veil through which to narrate a story of her life, I call this practice asymptotic autobiography. In mathematics, the asymptote is a straight line that a curve approaches increasingly closely, but never actually touches. I define “asymptotic autobiography” as a term for discussing any personal narrative that deliberately employs fiction in order to tell truth. In this inquiry, I examine the use of fairy tale language in giving voice to women writers’ autobiographical representations, using Zelda Fitzgerald’s novel and letters as the focus for my analysis. My research and critical analysis will examine how Save Me the Waltz, which Zelda Fitzgerald wrote while she was a psychiatric patient in the Phipps Clinic, uses fairy tales to provide a mapping of the many performances that autobiographical selfhood entails. By experimenting with open-ended fairy tale conventions instead of being limited by clinical truths, and by contextualizing her personal history in the realm of the imaginary, Fitzgerald removes her story from the psychiatric ward and places it safely in legend. The first three chapters of this dissertation show how, in sequence, the autobiographical self becomes free through the use of fairy tales in three stages: once the autobiographer has worked to separate herself from being bound by illness or clinical reality (Chapter One), she is free to make the decision of which self or selves she wishes to narrate and perform (Chapter Two); only once she has established her sense of self can the autobiographer then locate her plot, her map, and her narrative (Chapter Three). In Chapter Four, I offer an example of asymptotic autobiography in the form of a one-person play script that I wrote and performed about Zelda Fitzgerald’s life and hospitalization, using as a frame the fairy tale “The Swan Maiden.” This hybrid essay-performance combines the play script itself with personal writing of my own in which I describe the difficulties I had approaching and performing the rich material of Zelda’s life. / text

This study is aimed at elucidating the meaning of therapeutic change within the context of a person's life story. The author believes that delineation of therapeutic change within this context may help to overcome the incongruence among counselling theory, research, practice, and the experience of counselling clients. After reviewing the traditional literature on therapy outcome and change, the new options coming from narrative approaches were considered. The qualitative method of a multiple-case study was chosen as the most appropriate for the posed question. Three participants in this project completed either individual (1 woman) or group (1 woman and 1 man) therapy, and believed that they achieved a substantial therapeutic change; all of them had written their autobiography in the beginning of their therapy. In each case study, the autobiography was interpreted, the interpretation refined in the Life story interview, and validated in another interview with the participant. Then the Current life interview and the Interview with a significant other were conducted, and the Portrait of change was construed; again, the product was reviewed and validated with the participant. All interpretations, and the videotapes of interviews were reviewed by two independent judges. The three Portraits of change were mutually compared, and the working delineation of the therapeutic change within the context of a person's life story was abstracted from this comparison. In all 3 cases, the change seemed to be connected with a substantial reinterpretation of the individual's life story. This reinterpretation seemed to be based on the change of the individual's fundamental beliefs about self and others in-the-world, on greater and more flexible acceptance of self and others in their relational complexity, and on positioning one's Self as an agentic hero in his or her own life story. These changes were also reflected in the genre, the formal structure, and the explanatory reasoning of the new stories the participants told about their current lives, and lived by. The limitations of this study, and the implications of the findings for counselling theory, practice, and future research are discussed.

Karo metais moterų rašytų dienoraščių lietuvių literatūroje nėra daug. Jau nuo seno įprasta, kad vyrų kūriniams skiriama daugiau dėmesio, tačiau moteriškoji karo patirtis atskleidžiama tokių rašytojų kaip: Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Ana Frank, Marta Hillers, Julija Maceinienė. Žanrinėmis ypatybėmis dienoraštis yra panašus į autobiografiją, tačiau jame fiksuojami praėjusios dienos įvykiai, nesiekiama gręžtis į praeitį. Dienoraštis – tai datuoti užrašai, fiksuojantys dienos, savaitės ar kitokio laikotarpio atsiminimus, atskleidžiantis pasakojančio žmogaus jausmus, emocijas, išgyvenimus. Šio darbo objektas –pasakojančios moterys Anonimės, Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės, Anos Frank ir Julijos Maceinienės karo metais rašytuose dienoraščiuose. Dienoraštį, kaip žanrą yra nagrinėję šie literatūrologai: Daujotytė, Kubilius ir Glinskis. Darbos tikslas – remiantis semantine-strukturine analize išnagrinėti moters ir adresato santykį, moterų patirtį karo metais, karo „aukų“ vaizdavimą ir santykius su jais Anos Frank, Martos Hillers, Julijos Maceinienės ir Gabrielės Petkevičaitės Bitės dienoraščiuose. Pagal Phillipe Lejeune išskirtas dienoraščio funkcijas Anos Frank, Martos Hillers, Julijos Maceinienės ir Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės dienoraščiai atlieka išsakymo, aprašymo ir atsiminimų funkcijas, kurios karo metų dienoraščiuose yra susipinusios tarpusavyje. Dienoraščiuose pasakojančios moterys taikliai ir šališkai vertina karo padarinius Svarbu, kaip jos objektyviai sugeba perteikti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Department of History and Theory of Literature. There are only few diaries in Lithuanian literature written by women during war times. From the old times it was usual that the main attention is paid to the literature written by men, though women’s experience in war was revealed by such writers as Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Ana Frank, Marta Hillers, Julija Maceinė. The features of the genre reveal that diary is very similar to the autobiography, however in the diary are fixed the events of the previous day, and the writer is not intended to look into the past. Diary is the dated sketchbook, which fixates the memories of a day, week or other period of time, and they reveal the narrator’s feelings, emotions, and experience. In the war time diaries the link of history and documentation is very important, as it is full of historical testimony, descriptions of what happened, and the secondary attention is paid to the personal experience. The object of the present research is the story-telling women such as Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, Julija Maceinienė, Marta Hillers and Ana Frank in war time diaries. The scientists that discussed the diary as a genre are Daujotytė, Kubilius, Glinskis. The aim of this research is to analyze woman’s and addressee’s relation, women’s experience during war, war “victim’s” image and relation with them in Ana Frank, Marta Hiller, Julija Maceinienė and Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė diaries by using semantic-structural analysis. According to Phillipe Lejeune... [to full text]

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal