Traversing No Man's Land in Search of An(Other) Identity

An Autoethnographic Account

Bibliographic Data

ID2365411
AuthorsMarion Jones (0000-0003-1335-4222, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume42
Issue6
Pages745-768
Publication date2013-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891241613484356
OpenAlexW2109437866
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited22

In this autoethnography I provide a reflective-reflexive account of my search for an(other) identity following my move from my native Bavaria to North West England. It is a story of contradiction and uncertainty, which addresses issues of national identity and cultural adaptation. I offer a human portrait of how I experienced the interaction of agency and structure in my endeavor to become British and how I became embroiled in a moral, ethical, and emotional turmoil of conflicting imperatives. The key themes, through which I make explicit the struggle to create a coherent narrative of my self in relation to experiences of belonging, difference, and attachment in social, cultural, and political spaces, are departure and arrival, border crossing, and a disoriented self in transit. In presenting this multilayered account, I employ the technique of performance frames in the form of three literary categories, epic, drama and lyric, through which I revisit critical events and elucidate the gradual process of bringing my innermost feelings and thoughts to the surface. By weaving a rich tapestry of evocative, analytical, and theoretical materials I make explicit the complexities involved in autoethnographic research. Through inviting others to embark with me on this inner journey, I seek to assist those who find themselves similarly suspended in liminal spaces and to engender empathy and understanding among those who act as hosts toward border crossers like myself. Ultimately, I hope that my autoethnography provides a communicative, potentially subversive space, which invites critical reflection and discussion on the intersectionality of collective identities and thereby promotes individuals' freedom to choose, negotiate, and translate their cultural identities freely regardless of their cultural, social, or ethnic origins

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Art · Autoethnography · Drama · Epistemology · Identity (music · Liminality · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social and Cultural Dynamics

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