Constructing Personal and Couple Narratives in Late Stage Cancer: A Narrative Analysis

An increasing number of people with terminal cancer are being cared for at home, often by their partner. This study explores the identity, experiences and relationships of people caring for their partner at the end of life and how they construct their experience through personal and couple narratives. It draws upon dialogical approaches to narrative analysis to focus on caring partners and the care relationship. Six participants were recruited for the study. Two methods of data collection are used: narrative interviews and journals. Following individual case analysis, two methods of cross-narrative analysis are used: an analysis of narrative themes and an identification of narrative types. The key findings can be summarised as follows. First, in the period since their partner's terminal prognosis, participants sustained and reconstructed self and couple relationship narratives. These narratives aided the construction of meaning and coherence at a time of major biographical disruption: the anticipated loss of a partner. Second, the study highlights the complexity of spoken and unspoken narratives in terminal cancer and how these relate to individual and couple identities. Third, a typology of archetypal narratives based upon the data is identified. The blow-by-blow narratives illustrate how participants sought to construct coherence and meaning in the illness story, while champion and resilience narratives demonstrate how participants utilised positive self and relational narratives to manage a time of biographical disruption. The study highlights how this narrative approach can enhance understanding of the experiences and identities of people caring for a terminally ill partner.

Music teacher biography and its impact on teaching practice

This paper describes research carried out as part of a wider doctoral study on ‘the biography of music teachers, their understanding of musicality and the implications for secondary music education’. Music teachers will come from a range of diverse backgrounds, though research data would suggest that most seem to have been educated as ‘classical’ music performers which will have an affect on what they perceive to be central competencies in the development of young musicians. In turn, this will determine, to some extent, what is taught and learned in the secondary music classroom. This study explores the impact of the biography of secondary music teachers as they seek to develop the musicianship of their pupils and present the activities in which the young people will be expected to participate. A mixed methods approach has been taken, including surveys, observation and interviews. Surveys amongst a sample of experienced and trainee teachers have produced a range of quantitative data on respondents’ experience of and values related to music education; whilst qualitative data in the form of lesson observation notes and transcription of semi-structured interviews have been the result of working with a small sub-set of participants. The outcomes of study have suggested a clear link between biography and classroom practice but that there are also other potential tensions which arise, such as in the subject knowledge development of practitioners as they move from musician to teacher. Implications for a variety of stakeholders in secondary music education include a consideration of the development of subject knowledge together with potential review of national and local education policy, the nature of undergraduate music study and the ‘shape’ of initial teacher training in England.

May the Giant Be With You: Twin Peaks Season Two, Episode One and the Television Auteur

The premiere of Season Two of Twin Peaks garnered some of the highest ratings of the series, with celebrated filmmaker and co-creator David Lynch stepping back into the director’s chair. Yet, within this episode many traditional television conventions are flouted, and in response the following week the ratings dropped dramatically. From its slow-paced opening scenes in which an old man admonishes the wounded, bleeding protagonist to drink his warm milk before it gets cold, followed by a vision of a giant speaking in riddles, this episode not only tested its audience’s patience but also seemed to set out to deliberately confuse them. In this essay I will explore how this episode is an example of auteur television, an episode in which the director expresses a consistency of style and theme that is similar to their other work, as well as examine how Lynch’s approach to televisual aesthetics has influenced the way that contemporary film directors have crossed over into the television medium. However, when taking into account the differences in the two media of film and television notions of authorship, with regards to the position of the director, become complicated, especially when considering contemporary television and the rise of the showrunner as key creative force. Even when looking back at Lynch’s contribution to Twin Peaks it becomes clear that the series was deeply collaborative, with Lynch absent during parts of the filming. Yet, when examining the extensive material that has been written about Twin Peaks there is still a continuing tendency to place Lynch as the sole author. The placement of Lynch as author can be argued in relation to the episodes he directed (as will be explored below in relation to the first episode of Season Two), but cannot be attributed to him alone when considering the series as a whole. Finally, I will discuss how the figure of the television auteur has become a central element of television reception rather than production, an integral part of a viewer’s search for narrative meaning in a medium where complexity and mystery are now expected and enjoyed. Just as fans scrambled to uncover the many secrets and mysteries of Twin Peaks by looking to Lynch’s other works for answers, a similar process is experienced by fans of television shows existing today.