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Autoethnography

Sally Denshire Charles Sturt University, Australia

abstract Autoethnography, an alternative method and form of writing, can make for uncomfortable
reading. A transgressive account in the context of professional practice opens out a professionals life,
remaking power relations in the process. Relational ethics is an emerging growth area for autoethnogra-
phers, given the ethical implications for everyone represented in a transgressive telling. Future directions
include fresh juxtapositions of layered autoethnographic texts and collaborative accounts that break with
the selfother dichotomy.
keywords autoethnography relational ethics remaking professional practice transgressive
writing

Autoethnography is an alternative method and form a greater or lesser extent, inevitable parts of the
of writing (Neville-Jan, 2003: 89) falling somewhere autoethnographic act still raise questions about the
between anthropology and literary studies. Some value of each autoethnographic account and which
social science researchers have an interpretive literary accounts are to be published and counted as research.
style and others have been trained to write in ways Journals such as International Journal of Qualitative
that use highly specialised vocabulary, that efface the Methods, Qualitative Inquiry, Sociology of Sport
personal and flatten the voice, that avoid narrative in Journal, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography and
deference to dominant theories and methodologies of Disability and Society regularly publish autoethno-
the social sciences (Modjeska, 2006: 31). The com- graphic research.
plex relationship between social science writing and Moreover, autoethnographic writing has become
literary writing has led to a blurring between fact increasingly common in a range of disciplines, includ-
and fiction and between true and imagined ing those drawn on in professional practice. An
(Richardson, 2000b: 926). Autoethnographers often autoethnography written within/against a profession
blur boundaries, crafting fictions and other ways of (Evetts, 2012; Lather, 1991) may destabilize bound-
being true in the interests of rewriting selves in the aries between a professionals work and the rest of
social world. their life and break through the dichotomy between
Writing both selves and others into a larger story selves and others (Reed-Danahay, 1997).
goes against the grain of much academic discourse. In this article I am thinking sociologically about
Holt foregrounds the challenge that autoethnogra- doing and writing autoethnography in contexts of
phers issue to silent authorship: professional practice. My autoethnographic doctorate,
entitled Writing the ordinary: Autoethnographic tales
By writing themselves into their own work as major of an occupational therapist, comprised fictional tales
characters, autoethnographers have challenged accept- of practice written in direct dialogue with selected
ed views about silent authorship, where the researchers publications from my body of work. These twice-told
voice is not included in the presentation of findings. tales of sexuality, food and death contained vulnera-
(2003: 2)
ble, embodied representations of moments of practice
(Denshire, 2010, 2011a, 2011b).
Yes, autoethnography is a contested field. The My discussion in this article is grounded in over
introspective and subjective performances that are, to 30 years experience as a practitioner-researcher of

Sociopedia.isa
2013 The Author(s)
2013 ISA (Editorial Arrangement of sociopedia.isa)

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Denshire Autoethnography

occupational therapy. Practitioners in this little tique the depersonalizing tendencies that can come
known health profession typically attend to the into play in social and cultural spaces that have
meanings of activities in a clients everyday life, asymmetrical relations of power (Brodkey, 1996).
recording moments from a clients life narrative as Potential contact zones in schools (Brodkey, 1996)
part of their practice. I find the interdisciplinary field and health settings can be social spaces (Pratt, 1991)
of occupational therapy a productive space from where strangers meet and interact (Brodkey,
which to interrogate work and everyday life. Later in 1996: 27). Autoethnographic writing that shows
the article I consider autoethnographic examples of interactive moments from these social and cultural
embodied accounts from health and disability stud- spaces can be the currency of the contact zones
ies against evaluation criteria derived from ideas of (Brodkey, 1996: 28):
narrative truth.
The article begins with a theoretical overview of auto-ethnography invites writers to see themselves
autoethnography. Then I show how an autoethnog- and everyone else as human subjects constructed in a
rapher writing within/against a profession may begin tangle of cultural, social and historical situations and
to rework representations of power circulating relations in contact zones. (Brodkey, 1996: 29)
between intimates, friends, clients and colleagues
using selected accounts from health and disability Some early autoethnographers
studies. In this way, I foreground relational ethics A blurring of selves apparent in the early uses of the
(Ellis, 2007) as a growth area for autoethnography term autoethnography has had a productive trajec-
and social relationships and responsibilities that may tory. Facing Mount Kenya written in 1962 by
have implications for everyone identified in one or Kenyatta, the first president of independent Kenya,
more telling(s). Finally, I touch on future directions is recognized as the first published autoethnography
for writing autoethnography in terms of the social and has been criticized for being too subjective and
implications of telling a story from more than one uncritical (Hayano, 1979). Anthropologist Karl
point of view and the scope for unexpected collabo- Heider introduced the term autoethnography in
rations in autoethnography with previously silenced 1975 in the context of Dani autoethnography
authors. (Chang, 2008). This autoethnography consisted of
cultural accounts of sweet potato growing by the
Dani people, a Papuan culture in the highlands of
An overview of theoretical approaches Irian Jaya who were the informants for Heiders doc-
toral research (Heider, 1975, 2006). A few years
This section begins with the point that autoethnog- later, Hayano (1979) used the term autoethnogra-
raphy goes beyond the writing of selves and notes phy in a different way to refer to the study of an
some of the early autoethnographies that were writ- ethnographers own people, in the context of him-
ten in an anthropological tradition. Contemporary self as a card playing insider. The culture of card play-
autoethnography is informed by a range of disci- ing in Southern California was his autobiographical
plines. Writers of these accounts address social ques- connection to the ethnography (Chang, 2008: 47).
tions of difference and becoming that may enable
voices previously silenced to speak back. I note the Disciplines, boundaries, borders
binary distinction made between evocative and ana- Communication scholars Carolyn Ellis, Tony Adams
lytical autoethnography in a special issue of the and Art Bochner delineate autoethnographic
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography and then show method as both process and product, reiterating
how Reed-Danahay (1997) and others go beyond that a researcher uses tenets of autobiography and
this distinction. Some ideas on writing in different ethnography to do and write autoethnography (Ellis
voices and giving fictive accounts in autoethnogra- et al., 2011: 273). Social science autoethnographers,
phy are presented here. Finally, the section gives a writing in a range of genres in literary and perform-
prcis of feminist scholarship on writing ance studies, social and political sciences, higher edu-
within/against, writing as knowing, postmodern cation, communication studies, disability studies
emergence and a perceived reluctance to write pro- and health and social care, are starting to challenge
fessional practice differently. the discourses dominant in professional lives. In
order to write autoethnography you cant feel com-
Beyond the writing of selves pletely at home in your discipline (Burnier, 2006)
While autoethnography contains elements of autobi- and the discomfort experienced at stepping outside
ography, it goes beyond the writing of selves. Writing your own received frame is part of the autoethno-
that crosses personal and professional life spaces goes graphic task. Indeed, autoethnography can provide
further than autobiography whenever writers cri- vehicles for talking to each other often, across the

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borders of discipline and identity locations (Burdell writers personal experience has been particularly
and Swadener, 1999: 25). influential:
Autoethnography opens up a space of resistance
between the individual (auto-) and the collective (- I start with my personal life. I pay attention to my
ethno-) where the writing (-graphy) of singularity physical feelings, thoughts, and emotions. I use what
cannot be foreclosed (Lionnet, 1990: 391). I call systematic, sociological introspection and emo-
Autoethnography has also been interpreted as a crit- tional recall to try to understand an experience Ive
ical approach necessitating a privileged speaker who lived through. Then I write my experience as a story.
By exploring a particular life, I hope to understand a
sometimes seem[s] to want to study everybodys way of life. (Ellis and Bochner, 2000: 737)
social and cultural construction but their own
(Alcoff, 1991: 21) to no longer speak for others rou-
tinely, but rather to sometimes move over and listen In emphasizing the centrality of the personal, this
as a messenger would, to self interrogate and decon- account arguably backgrounds the social or cultural
struct [their] own discourse (1991: 3), bringing world in which the writing occurs, or, rather, reads
their privilege into question. Otherwise: the social and cultural through the personal. A con-
sequence of this is that a fine dissection of a particu-
When researchers bodies remain unmarked and lar personal experience that the writer has lived
hence naturalized as normative they reinscribe the through will frequently mean sacrificing opportuni-
power of scholars to speak without reflexive consider- ties to craft a broader ethnographic account that may
ation of their positionality, whereas others voices also be autobiographically reflexive (Atkinson, 2006;
remain silent or marginalized by their marked status.
Delamont, 2009).
(Ellingson, 2006: 301)
In the analytical tradition, on the other hand, a
sense of objectivity is valued. Anderson sets out the
So how might researchers in the social sciences following key features for analytic autoethnogra-
understand writing as a site of moral responsibility phy: (1) complete member researcher (CMR) status,
where authors acknowledge and celebrate previously (2) analytic reflexivity, (3) narrative visibility of the
silenced actors (Richardson, 1997)? researchers self, (4) dialogue with informants
beyond the self, and (5) commitment to theoretical
Wherever text is being produced, there is the ques- analysis (2006: 378). In the same special issue of the
tion of what social, power and sexual relationships Journal of Contemporary Ethnography mentioned
are being reproduced? How does our writing above, Atkinson has endorsed Andersons analytical,
reproduce a system of domination and how does it theoretical and objective approach to autoethnogra-
challenge that system? For whom do we speak, and
phy (Chang, 2008: 46).
to whom, with what voice, to what end, using what
criteria? (Richardson, 1997: 57)
Writing both self and culture
Beyond the binary distinction of evocative and ana-
Evocative/ analytical distinctions? lytical forms, the question of what is ethnographic
Different approaches in autoethnography can be about autoethnography requires a reflexive examina-
characterized in terms of different relationships tion of conceptions of both self and culture in terms
between the personal and the wider social and cul- of writing. In this regard, Deborah Reed-Danahay
tural world the writing seeks to enquire into. Ellis suggests that auto/ethnography:
and Bochner (2006) have classified these differences
in terms of evocative and analytical approaches, synthesizes both a postmodern ethnography,
where evocative autoethnography foregrounds the [with] the realist conventions and objective observer
writers personal stories and analytical autoethnogra- position of standard ethnography and a postmod-
phy connects to some broader set of social phenom- ern autobiography, in which the notion of the coher-
ena than those provided by the data themselves ent, individual self [have] been called into
question. The term has a double sense referring
(Anderson, 2006: 387). These two different either to the ethnography of ones own group or to
approaches are extensively explored in a special issue autobiographical writing that has ethnographic inter-
of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. est. (1997: 2)
This binary classification is useful as an initial
way of making visible the variation in how This synthesis requires a reassessment of how the
autoethnographic writers integrate the strands of self self and culture are conceptualized and written
and culture in their writing. Ellis and Bochners (Denshire and Lee, 2013). In these ways, auto-
(2000) preliminary definition, grounded in the ethnographic writing can be simultaneously

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personal and scholarly, evocative and analytical, cations that mark her trajectory as a feminist
descriptive and theoretical (Burnier, 2006). methodologist, inserting what she calls an Interlude
between each of the existing texts in her book. In
Writing and performing an folding her new and old writings both forward and
autoethnography back, she achieves a polytemporality. Situating femi-
Holman-Jones describes autoethnography as a nist research both within and against traditional
blurred genre [that] refus[es] categorization approaches to social science makes it possible to
believing that words matter and writing toward the probe how feminist research re-inscribes that which
moment when the point of creating autoethno- it is resisting as well as how it resists that re-inscrip-
graphic texts is to change the world (2005: 765). tion (Lather, 1991: 27).
She discusses the act of balancing with respect to In Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life,
autoethnographic writing. That is, the balance Laurel Richardson explores these two questions:
between, first, telling versus showing how much of How do the specific circumstances in which we
ourselves do/should we include, and what should we write affect what we write? How does what we write
leave out? And then she writes about and holding affect who we become? (1997: 1). Her reflections on
together the/a self and culture in a world that is con- the co-authored ethnographic drama The Sea
stantly in flux. Monster gave rise to the writing-story genre, the
Autoethnography is a fictive tradition. Tensions story of how a text is constructed. She found the
exist between autoethnography and literary tradi- power of this genre by writing the story of co-
tions, with stories being put together using compos- authorship as her story, not allowing another voice
ite characters and sources (Clough, 1999). Literary to penetrate the text (1997: 74). Each representa-
tales make use of conventions such as dialogue and tion or writing-story that she produced, on reread-
monologue to create character, calling up emotional ing an existing piece of writing, becomes increasingly
states, sights, smells, noises and using dramatic evocative, illuminat(ing) a different facet of the
reconstruction. Oral traditions are also an important complexity of a writing-life as Forewords or
part of recovering the ordinary-everyday of practice. Afterwords (1997: 5).
Impressionist tales are open to multiple interpreta- The idea of writing as a method of enquiry
tions and the writer has a degree of interpretive (Richardson and St Pierre, 2005) has been recently
authority when choosing the story in question. extended into a new theory of representation
There is a freshness and spontaneity at work in the (Somerville, 2007: 225) that articulates the com-
live performance of an impressionist tale. It is a tall mon elements of these alternative approaches to
order to communicate in writing less of the cold research so that each individual and each research
ambition that come[s] from print and more other project is not an isolated effort to break through the
truths and intimacies that come from speech (Tyler, unsayable to new knowledge (Somerville, 2007:
1986: 123). 225). Spurred on by Indigenous colleagues,
Autoethnography is usually written in the first Somerville has gone further than deconstruction to
person (Ellis and Bochner, 2000). An autobiograph- the idea of hope. Her new theory of representation is
ical defence of personal narrative in sociology will cyclic, focusing on creation of meaning from the
intentionally use the second person you to address relationship between the parts creation from
any charge of self-indulgence, name the work as self- working the space in between (2007: 239).
involved and point out those neutral, disembodied These foregoing bodies of work are relevant to
conventions of a traditional masculine academic dis- autoethnography in several ways. First, through
course (Mykhalovskiy, 1996). And writing in the deconstructive notions of doubled writings and
third person, as she or he, distances the self to tellings published in a single volume (Lather, 2007);
become just another figure/character in the drama. second, using writing as a method of enquiry
This is a methodological decision so that the story (Richardson and St Pierre, 2005); and third, in terms
becomes more fictive, a rationale drawn from collec- of postmodern emergence, both becoming self and
tive memory work (Crawford et al., 1992) for writ- becoming-other (Somerville, 2007) as a vulnerable
ing all self-stories in third person rather than the observer (Behar, 1996).
dangers and risks of remaining in first person. Telling
a story in the first person can run a risk of too much Transgressive accounts of (professional)
attachment to self and a certain set of memories. practice
In her autoethnographic doctorate on learning and
Feminist bodies of work becoming in the field of academic development, Tai
In Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts toward a Double(d) Peseta has posed the following question at the
Science, Patti Lather (2007) revisits the earlier publi- University of Sydney where a palpable sense of

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apprehension and reluctance circulated about writ- visibility (Bruni 2002) and an insider account of
ing practice differently and critically: back pain (White, 2003), and forbidden social work
narratives about having a breakdown (Church,
What is it about the labour and organization of aca- 1995) were initially troubling to read. Initially, read-
demic development that effaces such expressions of ing very personal accounts written within/against
difference; that very often stifles our ability to cre- feminized professions and hearing autoethnographic
atively represent our work when we come to write of narratives such as these positioned within the author-
it? (2005: 114) itative discourse (Bakhtin, 1981) seemed too self-dis-
closing and exposing of the writers lives.
And in an unpublished presentation entitled Until I started to read against the discourse inter-
Academic development as the practice of thinking rupting comfortable reflexivity (Pillow, 2003: 187),
otherwise at a conference symposium on auto- I have to confess that I was as likely as not to classi-
ethnography in three professions, Peseta suggests fy some of these embodied personal narratives as
that autoethnography opens a door for those of us autoethnographies of affliction. Gradually though,
interested in offering accounts of professional prac- the viscerality and the pain expressed by these
tice that are committed to acknowledging a human- authors persuaded me to somehow start writing my
ness to the work. She continues: body-self as part of my autoethnographic research,
even though lived bodies have been strangely absent
While criticisms of autoethnography throw up the from healthcare research (Ellingson, 2006).
auto of the researcher as an aspect of the approach Writing and reading autoethnographic accounts
that warrants caution (Fine, 1999; Gans, 1999; threw me around emotionally, stirring up unresolved
Ryang, 2005), there are now so many accounts of grief and questions to do with class beginnings, gen-
life that have been enabled by autoethnography and der and belonging. Making opportunities to de-brief
more generally, the literary turn within the social and
health sciences (Ellis, 1995; Behar, 1996; Sparkes,
after dealing with confronting materials is impor-
1996; Bochner, 1997; Denshire, 2009). Without tant. Given the possibility that abandonment is a
these intimate and detailed evocations of life and common practice of the would-be autoethnograph-
professional practice, our knowledge of those worlds er (Bruni, 2002: 32), it is necessary to become aware
would be severely diminished. (Tai Peseta, pers. both of the risks in using the self as the only source
comm., May 2012) of data (Holt, 2003) and of the resilience and con-
viction (2003: 19) vital to writing in this genre.
Transgressive accounts go beyond the proper to Establishing a warrant for autoethnography is pivotal
trouble the ethical relations of self and other in order to carrying out this kind of research.
to break through the dominant representations of
professional practice, creating new knowledges. Selected autoethnographic accounts from
Dominant discourses are being challenged by schol- health and disability studies
ars such as Ruth Behar in anthropology; Collette Various professional fields have worked within par-
Granger, Linda Brodkey, Peter Clough, Tai Peseta in ticular conceptions of the domain of health that have
education; DeLysa Burnier in political science; largely excluded the extensive field of disability stud-
Barbara Jago in communication studies; Jodi Hall ies (Hammell, 2006). Now autoethnographic writ-
and Tessa Muncey from nursing; and Ann Neville- ing from disability studies (Richards, 2008),
Jan, Anne Kinsella, Rachel Thibeault and Nancy anthropology (Behar, 1996), occupational therapy
Salmon in occupational therapy. I have come to con- (Kinsella, 2006; Neville-Jan, 2003; Salmon, 2006)
sider these accounts transgressive autoethnographies and nursing (Muncey, 2005; Wall, 2008) is challeng-
of (professional) practice and now go on to evaluate ing the dominant discourses in health that define
several exemplary texts in the next section. experiences of illness and wellness, self and other. I
have selected autoethnographic accounts by Rose
Richards, Nancy Salmon, Anne Kinsella and Ann
Empirical evidences and assessment Neville-Jan in which these authors each critically
of research reflect on embodied experiences of health and dis-
ability, challenging existing power relations and rais-
Setting out to write an autoethnographic account ing ethical issues.
felt somewhat daunting to me at the start. Reading First, a well-developed example of the power of
the work of others enabled me to learn about autoethnography to represent about illness and dis-
autoethnography by example (Wall, 2006: 6). ability is a compelling insider account of kidney fail-
Embodied representations, both published by ure, transplantation and recovery (Richards, 2008).
nurses, of mental illness, addiction and the crisis of Richardss account resists any notion of authorial

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omniscience and objectivity (2008: 1720) and the human drive to exchange gifts, feeling that pro-
shows the layered complexity of different points of fessionalism only allowed her to accept a present
view and different positionings in a given situation from another and not to reciprocate with the gift of
and the underlying theoretical assumptions that a small carefully chosen sculpture. Her poem resists
inform the positions being examined (2008: 1725). the usual professional language, by beginning with
While testimony can disrupt and emancipatory the life world [dimensions] of the practitioner
discourses break the silence, destabilized narratives (2006: 43) that are so frequently disregarded or
may be the most effective type of autoethnography repressed (2006: 44). She suggests that it is not
(Richards, 2008) because they problematise repre- uncommon for practitioners to experience tensions
sentation, inviting readers to co-create meaning and around the phenomenological aspects of practice.
discover what his or her own positioning is in a given Her account also challenges the received clinical
context (Richards, 2008: 1724). Rose Richardss binaries of client and therapist, raising important
account about writing the othered self challenges ethical questions around making room for gestures
existing power relations between the users and of mutuality and reciprocity in healthcare inter-
providers of health services, raising ethical consider- actions.
ations about relations between selves and others in Finally, Ann Neville-Jan, autoethnographic
health, disability and disease. researcher and occupational therapy academic, takes
Second, Nancy Salmon (2006) portrays an an embodied perspective of disability (2004: 116)
intense personal relationship between mother and as a woman living with spina bifida, by using the
daughter, conveying the strangeness both of having term impairment to draw attention to the bodily
dementia and of caring for someone with dementia, struggles involved in participation in everyday activ-
in the process highlighting some of the inequities of ities (2004: 115). She preferred to publish her sec-
care-giving in Canada and the lack of respite. Her ond autoethnography, a moving account of her quest
autoethnographic narrative of care-giving used diary for a child, in Disability and Society (Neville-Jan,
excerpts, reflective writing and poetry to evoke the 2004). And she speaks out as a woman living a pre-
transit zone both women must inhabit, flipping the ventable condition (Neville-Jan, 2005).
viewpoint of a care-giving daughter who is also a When Ann Neville-Jan (2003) looked back on
health professional (Salmon, 2006). This account her symposium paper that was ostensibly about
foregrounds her authority as a care-giving daughter potential connections between biology and occupa-
on her mothers last night in the family home and tion, she realized that, actually, the take-home mes-
raises poignant ethical questions of loss and change, sage of the paper was about her encounters with
pushing Salmons professional identity into the back- practitioners (italics added). Current accounts of
ground. impaired bodies focus productively on the reflexive
Third, Anne Kinsella looks back after 10 years on relationship between the bodily and the social
an experience of lingering discomfort (2006: 40) as (McDaniel, 2011: 3) and how the body literally is
an occupational therapist reflecting on how the conceptualised as embodying the social (2011: 7).
objectivity expected of her silenced her emotions. Perhaps Neville-Jan publicly came to know the
The following telling excerpt from her poem spaces of both self and other as a woman living
Professionalism is dedicated to Louise, a 26-year- with spina bifida who is also an occupational thera-
old woman living with a progressive brain tumour: py academic and an autoethnographer. Ann Neville-
Jan inhabits these life spaces simultaneously in her
Your bodys disappointments I know body of work. She challenges power relations and
Of necessity raises ethical questions about the authority of
It is my job embodied experiences of disability.
In my view, the foregoing autoethnographic
I transgress by visiting
accounts satisfy both Richardsons (2000a) factors
Your family in the evening
On occasion for reviewing personal narrative (substantive contri-
In emergencies bution, aesthetic merit, reflexivity, impactfulness and
expresses a reality) and Bochners (2000) concrete
Your last Christmas details, structurally complex narratives, qualities of
I keep the gift in my bottom drawer authenticity and honesty, a standard of ethical self-
Guilty (2006: 42) consciousness and a moving story. The conventions
of the authoritative discourses of science and medi-
Poetry has the potential to disrupt the taken-for- cine will support masculine hegemony and hetero-
granted (Kinsella, 2006). Here Kinsella reflects criti- sexist power (Butler, 2006: 46). Embodied
cally on the inner conflict she experienced in curbing autoethnographic accounts of professional practice

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Denshire Autoethnography

in health and disability studies, such as these, can (Pratt, 1991), then one might focus more on convey-
reconfigure power relations, opening out disembod- ing ones own experience and foregrounding it, while
ied renderings of experience and remaking practice relegating the social and relational to the back-
interactions. ground.
My portfolio of tales of sexuality, food and death
that dramatized paradigmatic scenes from a remem-
A growing area of interest bered world of occupational therapy at Camperdown
Childrens Hospital is an example of an autoethnog-
In the context of health and disability studies, raphy of a professionals practice that also featured
autoethnographic writings can create discomfort fictionalized accounts of previously silenced others.
through their challenges to traditional realist modes These fictional tales were twice-told, first, by an
of representation. They can also bring new visibilities Anglo-Australian occupational therapist in her thir-
and awarenesses, however. ties and then by girls of Pacific Islands, Aboriginal
In the context of writing about clinical practice, and Turkish heritage. Crafting such fictional
for example, autoethnographic accounts may neces- accounts may have ethical implications for (re)pre-
sitate questioning and reworking received clinical senting something of the intimacy and viscerality of
binaries such as patienttherapist and clientpracti- interactions between all the actors involved in
tioner. Putting the self into the picture at all is chal- moments of practice (Denshire, 2009).
lenging enough in this context, but putting the very
notion of a self at risk opens up places of vulnerabil-
ity that can also be opportunities for radical rework- Future directions
ing of categories of thought and action, including
those that cross boundaries between fields or profes- Postmodern conversation around truths and fictions
sions (Denshire and Lee, 2013). (Smith, 1996) continues to inform critical under-
standings of the value and versatility of contempo-
Implications of relational ethics rary autoethnographic writing in the social sciences
The relational ethics of a professionals practice, that (Reed-Danahay, 1997; Somerville, 2007).
is to say the interpersonal ties and responsibilities Understanding the cultural features of the group in
researchers have to those they study (Adams and question their beliefs, their reasoning and commu-
Ellis, 2012: 189), is emerging as a growing area of nication remains necessary in writing any form of
autoethnographic interest with implications for all ethnography (Van Maanen, 1988). New representa-
those members of the researchers social network tions are overdue in research in the social sciences, as
whether they are intimates, clients or colleagues who Peter Clough points out:
are identified as characters in a telling (Ellis et al.,
2011). Devices that are intended to protect partici- There are new maps to draw in the making of fic-
pants identities in autoethnographic accounts tional characters, maps to help us in the task of writ-
include fictionalizing (Clough, 2002) and the use of ing people into narrative. Translating lifes realities as
symbolic equivalents (Yalom, 1991). Protective writ- lived by men and women into story, and doing in
such a way as still to be believed, is the ethnographic
ing devices such as a nom de plume (Morse, 2000),
challenge. (Clough, 2002: 64)
composite characterization (Ellis, 2007) and pseudo-
nyms (Chang, 2008) used to respect the privacy of
those portrayed in an autoethnographic narrative are Topical categories of autoethnography include:
put under scrutiny in a recent critique of current indigenous autoethnography, narrative ethnography,
autoethnographic practice (Tolich, 2010). reflexive interviews, reflexive ethnography, layered
Autoethnographic studies of grief, illness and dis- accounts, interactive interviews, community
ability such as Ellis (1995) and Sparkes (1996) autoethnography, co-constructed narratives and,
arguably intersect with experiences of professional contentiously, personal narratives that stand alone
life. There may also be a distinction in that the for- (Ellis et al., 2011). Hence I have selected two new
mer often represent more individual, private and directions to discuss for the production of
intimate experiences while the autoethnographies of autoethnographic texts. Both these new directions
professional practitioners may be more public and are discussed in turn with examples.
overtly relational and deal with different types of The first is the trend to freshly juxtapose
experience. The power relations are different and the autoethnographic texts that have been written from
expressive needs are different too. If one is speaking more than one point of view. A layered account
from a position of a vulnerable and somewhat voice- (Ronai, 1995: 395) is one that shows connections
less minority however, speaking back to power among personal experience, theory, and research

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Denshire Autoethnography

practices as the writer moves back and forth projects have been completed within supportive
between narratives and reflections on those narra- higher degree research settings. An example of inter-
tives or their content (Goodall, 2008: 68) and chal- active interviews within a critical autoethnography
lenges a single telling from just one viewpoint. from the University of Western Ontario follows.
Layered accounts may proliferate in future, juxtapos-
ing multiple tellings from more than one point of Examples of new directions
view, especially via new media and performance I consider Jodi Halls (2012) doctoral dissertation,
autoethnography (Spry, 2011). Okay, so remember, this is a drape not a sheet: A
The associated concept of assemblage includes but critical autoethnography of performing the prac-
goes beyond the literal bringing together of a range tice(d) body of a Gynaecological Teaching Associate
of heterogeneous elements in different modalities to (GTA), as characteristic of the new directions for
offer different perspectives on a phenomenon. autoethnography, employing both layered writing
Assemblage challenges and displaces boundaries interspersed with voices of silenced others. Her doc-
between the individual and the social through a toral thesis, awarded from the University of Western
focus on practice, which offers a new ontology of Ontario, addressed the interactions and agendas of
the social (Denshire and Lee, 2013). Through suc- all the human and non-human actors and texts cir-
cessive displacements of the self as the primary site of culating in a pelvic teaching programme (GTAs,
experience and meaning we seek to contribute new medical students, programme administrators, mate-
understandings about the potential for autoethnog- rial objects) in original, multi-perspectival ways.
raphy to engage with professional practice as a space The sociopolitical processes and products of
of multiplicity. social and affective change in this study speak right
The second new direction I am proposing is the back to the critics of autoethnography who complain
production of collaborative accounts by previously of researcher self-obsession. The study has intricate
silenced voices. There is potential for remaking methodological strands, artfully woven through per-
somewhat tired traditional professional attributes, formances of both selves and fictional composite
such as professional expertise and professional others. Her research offers powerful views into
detachment, into something more negotiated, to silenced experiences of pelvic teaching, successfully
enable co-produced moments of practice in a world risking researcher self-disclosure in the process. The
in flux. In this way, producing collaborative texts literature reviewed lays out ethical dilemmas in the
that are co-authored both with and by previously field of pelvic teaching from the viewpoints of every-
silenced others (Richardson, 1997) is another future one involved, exposing gynaecological practices that
direction for autoethnography in contexts of profes- were (and may still be) dubious and unethical, and
sional practice that necessitate redistributing power reconfiguring gendered knowledges for the educa-
between service users/co-researchers and service tion of health professionals.
providers. Hall is a qualitative researcher, doula and
These collaborative texts may take the form of womens health advocate. Her critical perspectives
interactive interviews, community autoethnography are highly original and unrelenting, (re)sensitizing
or co-constructed narratives written by two or more readers to women of all ages and our bodies, and
authors (Adams and Ellis, 2012; Ellis et al., 2011). restoring the authority of womens experiences while
These transgressive texts go beyond the proper to critiquing normative discourses of gender perform-
trouble the ethical relations of selves and others in ance. Her grasp of the autoethnographic genre
order to break through dominant discourses, creat- enabled her to present intimate aspects of her own
ing new knowledges. A collaborative account of pro- layered experiences right up front to participants
fessional practice would enable power to circulate without any charge of self-indulgence, describing
between all the actors involved in the interests of multiple pelvic examinations that show the discur-
service users speaking back and moving in from the sive tensions in pelvic teaching and how to (not)
margins to productive interaction with practitioners. talk the body.
But writing body-selves back into autoethno- Meanwhile, nursing scholar Tessa Muncey
graphic accounts is difficult to accomplish when (2005) has skilfully juxtaposed the snapshot,
lived bodies have been strangely absent from health- metaphor, the journey and artifacts, in combination
care research (Ellingson, 2006). Quarantining the in a published autoethnography, problematizing her
resources necessary to craft collaborative accounts, memories of becoming pregnant at a young age to
such as time to write and institutional support, will demonstrate the disjunctions that characterise peo-
remain complex to secure, however, within largely ples lives (2005: 69). Further, writing from cultural
unreflective and over-regulated practice settings. studies, Uotinen (2011) has expanded the conceptu-
Some collaborative autoethnographic writing al terrain of autoethnography through her enquiry

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Denshire Autoethnography

into bodily and unbeknown knowledge, where account. Her website is at:
autoethnographic writing can excavate those prac- http://www.ruthbehar.com/
tices that have become invisible because of their ordi- Denzin N, Lincoln Y and Tuhiwai-Smith L (eds) (2008)
nariness or repetitiveness (Uotinen, 2011: 1309). Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies.
Los Angeles: Sage.
Conclusions Both Indigenous ethnographic accounts by Native
Americans, Hawaiian, Maori, African and First
In these ways, autoethnography demonstrates the Nations peoples and (auto)ethnographies by feminist,
potential to speak back (and perhaps differently) queer and critical race theorists are now available in
about professional life under prevailing conditions of the Handbook of Critical and Indigenous Methodologies
audit culture so as to make and remake ethical rela- edited by Norman Denzin, Yvonna Lincoln and
tions in contexts of professional practice (Denshire et Linda Tuhiwai-Smith. An important take home
al., 2012). Autoethnography continues to occupy an message from this handbook is that resistance and
intermediate space we cant quite define yet, a bor- possibility are embedded within the local.
derland between passion and intellect, analysis and Ellis C, Adams T and Bochner A (2011)
subjectivity, ethnography and autobiography, art and Autoethnography: An overview. Historical Social
life (Behar, 1996: 174). The foregoing vulnerable, Research 36(4): 27390.
embodied accounts derived from reflexivities of dis- This recent journal article by communication
scholars Carolyn Ellis, Tony Adams and Art Bochner
comfort (Pillow, 2003: 187) open possibilities for: provides an up-to-date overview of the field of
autoethnography. There is a shift apparent from most
A more embodied field of qualitative research of Ellis and Bochners earlier work on the evocation
[that] would maintain more permeable boundaries, of personal experience to now clearly articulating the
be more difficult to categorize, and offer less certain- potential of autoethnography for social justice
ty and more vulnerability. Researchers would have to initiatives using both analytical and evocative writing.
address our fears of illness, death, and bodies out of Richards R (2008) Writing the othered self:
control instead of staying detached and ignoring our Autoethnography and the problem of objectification
bodies (and others bodies). (Ellingson, 2006: 308) in writing about illness and disability. Qualitative
Health Research 18(12): 171728.
Despite the challenge, discomfort (and occasion- This insider account of the under-documented
experience of kidney failure, transplantation and
al joy) of writing autoethnography it is important to recovery is a compelling example of the power of
press on with the autoethnographic project. That is, autoethnography to represent about illness and
to destabilize and redraw the boundaries between a disability. Author Rose Richards, a doctoral candidate
professionals work and their life to benefit previous- in South Africa who is living with end-stage renal
ly silenced actors. There is an ethical need in both disease, resists objectification and identifies three
teaching and research contexts for autoethnographic types of illness autoethnography: testimony,
texts that expand practice interactions to include all emancipatory discourses and destabilized narratives.
the actors involved, and (re)present moments of pro- Highly recommended.
fessional practice from more than one viewpoint. Sikes P (ed.) (2013) Autoethnography, Vols 14. London:
Sage.
Reading the table of contents for this upcoming
publication I note there are 80 benchmarked articles
Annotated further reading from the field included in the impressive four-
volume set edited by Pat Sikes from the University of
Behar R (1996) The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology Sheffield. This collection will prove an invaluable
that Breaks your Heart. Boston: Beacon Press. resource for scholars in the field wishing to review
The qualities of a vulnerable observer who is able to the literature. All of the authors I have suggested for
disrupt the taken-for-granted are powerfully further reading as well as many autoethnographers I
conveyed in this acclaimed collection of poignant have already referred to here are included in this set
fieldwork essays (translated into Chinese in 2010) by of scholarly volumes.
Ruth Behar, the well-known cultural anthropologist,
writer and film-maker. Her very personal essay,
entitled The girl in the cast, describing how [t]he
body doesnt forget (p. 118), details the ways her References
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Denshire Autoethnography

Sally Denshire is an academic in the School of Community Health at Charles Sturt University
in Australia and a member of the Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and
Education (RIPPLE). Her autoethnographic PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney
was on the 2010 Chancellors List. She is interested in health reform, building new theoretical
and methodological tools for researching practice, including ethnographic and
autoethnographic writing incorporating visual media, and reinscribing gendered bodies and
heritages into the health professions. [email: sdenshire@csu.edu.au]

rsum LAuto-ethnographie, qui est une mthode et une forme dcriture parallles, peut produire de
la lecture dsagrable. Un rcit transgressif dans le contexte de pratique professionnelle rveille la vie dun
professionnel, refaisant les reports de force au passage. Lthique relationnelle est un secteur en expansion
mergent pour des autoethnographes, tant donn les implications thiques pour chacun qui est
reprsent dans un rcit transgressif. Les directions futures incluent des juxtapositions nouvelles des textes
auto-ethnographiques superposs et les rcits collaboratifs qui rompent avec lauto-autre dichotomie.
mots-cls auto-ethnographie criture transgressive thique relationnelle refaisant pratique
professionnelle

resumen La autoetnografa, que es un mtodo y una forma de escritura alternativo, puede producir
lectura desagradable. Un reporte transgresivo dentro del contexto de la prctica profesional despliega la
vida de un profesional, rehaciendo relaciones de poder en el proceso. La tica en las relaciones forma un
rea emergente en crecimiento para autoetngrafos, considerando las implicaciones ticas para cualquiera
representado en una narracin transgresiva. Los rumbos futuros incluyen las yuxtaposiciones nuevas de
textos autoetnogrficos estratificados y los reportes colaborativos que rompen con la dicotoma del
mismo-otro.
palabras claves autoetnografa escritura transgresiva tica de relaciones rehaciendo prctica
profesional

12

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