1st Edition

Revision Autoethnographic Reflections on Life and Work

By Carolyn Ellis Copyright 2009
    396 Pages
    by Routledge

    396 Pages
    by Routledge

    Carolyn Ellis is the leading writer in the move toward personal, autobiographical writing as a strategy for academic research. In addition to her landmark books Final Negotiations and The Ethnographic I, she has authored numerous stories that demonstrate the emotional power and academic value of autoethnography. This volume collects a dozen of Ellis’s stories—about the loss of her husband, brother and mother; of growing up in small town Virginia; about the work of the ethnographer; about emotionally charged life issues such as abortion, caregiving, and love. Atop these captivating stories, she adds the component of meta-autoethography—a layering of new interpretations, reflections, and vignettes to her older work. An important new work for qualitative researchers and a student-friendly text for courses.

    One: Growing Up in a Rural Community, Getting and Education, and Finding My Place in Community Ethnography; One: Goin' to the Store, Sittin' on the Street, and Runnin' the Roads; Two: Talking Across Fences; Three: Investigating the Fisher Folk and Coping with Ethical Quagmires; Two: Becoming an Autoethnographer; Four: Reliving Final Negotiations; Five: Renegotiating Final Negotiations; Three: Surviving and Communicating Family Loss; Six: Surviving the Loss of My Brother; Seven: Rereading “There Are Survivors”; Eight: Rewriting and Re-Membering Mother; Nine: Coconstructing and Reconstructing The Constraints of Choice in Abortion; Four: Doing Autoethnography as a Social Project; Ten: Breaking Our Silences/Speaking with Others; Eleven: Learning to Be With in Personal and Collective Grief; Twelve: Connecting Autoethnographic Performance with Community Practice; Five: Reconsidering Writing Practices, Relational Ethics, and Rural Communities; Thirteen: Writing Revision and Researching Ethically; Fourteen: Returning Home and Revisioning My Story

    Biography

    Carolyn Ellis