About: Body, Paper, Stage Writing and performing autoethnography by Tami Spry

Chapter 3

“This composition method emerged from “placing [myself] level with the body” in my own practice over the last fifteen years, and through much of my writing form and to a culture of loss” p. 119

What to write about?

“Performative autoethnography id about what your connection to others in contexts, and only you can decide what experience are already to be engaged through this method. To begin, focus on an experience - or a series of experiences - that changed your life in some way, or that was somehow transformative in terms of how you think, act, or see the world. The experience caused you to think/act/react differently than before its occurrence. I Writing the New Ethnography, H.L Goodall suggests considering “your life as a historical artefact. What are the historical events that hold special meanings for you? Which ones have shaped your worldview?… What makes you tick? Or put differently, what is it that you live for: Who do you live for? Your answers to these questions may spark experiences in your life that will be the catalyst for critical reflection upon larger social issues.” p. 123

Sociocultural context

Identify and describe the sociocultural norms and expectations of the cultural context in which your story/experience takes place.


Metaphor

Use metaphor in our writing to expand and deepen meaning of the experiences.  Theorists argue that we understand our world through metaphor, i.e., the use of sports metaphors and was metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Objects can often symbolise complex issues and experiences causing us to make deeper associations and connections. Metaphors can be objects, places, ideas. Make a list of objects and places that are in some way connected with any part of your experience. Consider what each one might symbolise in the construction of your experience. For example, consider the way in which skin is used as a metaphor in “Skins: A Daughter’s (Re) Construction of Cancer” to expand and give dimension to issues of gender identification and class.
Metaphors can be an organising construct. p. 148