A Widow and a Questionable Autoethnographer

Bibliographic Data

ID2365735
AuthorsG Tsolidis (0000-0002-5543-432X, Deakin University Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Burwood, VIC, Australia, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume53
Issue3
Pages279-300
Publication date2024-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/08912416241232415
OpenAlexW4391899123
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited30

There are two aims in writing this paper. Firstly, I reflect on several incidents that highlighted for me what it meant to be a widow in the eyes of others. The intention is to bring to light how becoming a widow reinforces how people define you relative to a man, more poignant because that man is absent. Providing personal insights sifted through theory is a form of feminist autoethnography that functions here as an intervention into more common views of widowhood. The second aim is to consider my experience of having the original version of this paper rejected by a journal. The reviewers' comments made me understand that my execution of feminist autoethnography was seen as problematic. This experience has spurned me to explore the need for methodological risk-taking, particularly when the topic being discussed, in this case widowhood, requires personal resilience to bring out of the shadows. Discussing issues that are "heartfelt" can contribute to debates about the construction of knowledge because they invite consideration of what is taken to be rational and what is taken to be emotional

Autoethnography · Epistemology · Intervention (counseling · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Psychological resilience · Sociology · Gender Studies · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Philosophy · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Psychology

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