This research investigates the role personal expressive writing plays in aiding young women with their identity search. The focus is on the expressive and interpretive processes of refiguring identity as it occurs in the perceptions of self, mediated by the cultural milieu and shaped in journal entries. The purpose is to explore: (a) young women's construction of meaning from the context of writing experiences; (b) the effects of journaling as a model that allows the self to experience personal growth and discovery; (c) the construction of young women's gender identity.
Issues of gender identity and self-representation are approached from the perspectives of 17 female university students who have been passionate journal writers since their early adolescence. There are four data collection strategies: (a) 2 questionnaires; (b) in-depth interviews; (c) participants' personal journal texts; (d) the researcher's journal. Three distinctive disciplines inform the theoretical framework for my research: psychoanalysis (object relations theory drawing on Winnicott), Cultural Studies, and, feminism.
Findings indicate that young women use personal journal as a Potential Space, where deeper self-understanding is attained through approaching the personal in terms of a shared experience with cultural implications. Personal journal writing is also used as a transitional phenomenon that enables the interaction with others within this inner world, an interaction that allows the transition from being merged into separate being. Additionally, participants use their personal journal writing as a defence against painful realities. By investigating one's engagements with personal writing, an awareness of dominant ideologies and the construction of the journal writer's subjectivities result. Young women use language and journaling as a tool to gain a clearer sense of self, to differentiate from others, and as an experience of communication and personal awareness in relation to their socially constructed identities. Further pedagogical considerations and implications of personal journal writing for young adult women are explored.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/29666 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Karagiozis, Nectaria |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 364 p. |
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