(Re)writing the other/self : autoethnography in the transcultural arena of representation

Abstract: In Imperial Eyes Mary Louise Pratt (1992: 7, emphasis original) defines autoethnography as "instances in which colonized subjects undertake to represent themselves in ways that engage with the colonizer's own terms ... in response to or in dialogue with . . . metropolitan representations." Although Pratt's conceptualization of autoethnography has much to offer post-colonial studies, it has received little attention in the field. In this thesis, I interrogate Pratt's notion of autoethnography as a theoretical tool for understanding the self-representations of subordinate peoples within transcultural terrains of signification. I argue that autoethnography is a concept that allows us to move beyond some theoretical dualisms, and to recognize the (necessary) coexistence of subordinate peoples' simultaneous accommodation of and resistance to dominant representations of themselves. I suggest that even when autoethnographic expressions seem to rely on or to reproduce dominant knowledges, their very existence as speech acts implicitly resists dominant discourses which objectify members of oppressed populations and re-create them as Native Informants. I use Pratt's concept to analyze two books by Islamic feminist sociologist Fatima Memissi. Memissi's Dreams ofTrespass and Scheherazade Goes West illustrate the simultaneity of accommodation and disruption evident in autoethnographic communication. Across the two books, Memissi shows herself renegotiating the discourses which discipline her (and her speech). She switches back and forth between the positions of reader and author, demonstrates the reciprocity of the disciplinary gaze (she looks back at her dominants, reading their own reading of her representation of her social group), and provides a model of autoethnographic dialogue.

Is it me? Self-recognition bias across sensory modalities and its relationship to autistic traits

Background Atypical self-processing is an emerging theme in autism research, suggested by lower self-reference effect in memory, and atypical neural responses to visual self-representations. Most research on physical self-processing in autism uses visual stimuli. However, the self is a multimodal construct, and therefore, it is essential to test self-recognition in other sensory modalities as well. Self-recognition in the auditory modality remains relatively unexplored and has not been tested in relation to autism and related traits. This study investigates self-recognition in auditory and visual domain in the general population and tests if it is associated with autistic traits. Methods Thirty-nine neurotypical adults participated in a two-part study. In the first session, individual participant’s voice was recorded and face was photographed and morphed respectively with voices and faces from unfamiliar identities. In the second session, participants performed a ‘self-identification’ task, classifying each morph as ‘self’ voice (or face) or an ‘other’ voice (or face). All participants also completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). For each sensory modality, slope of the self-recognition curve was used as individual self-recognition metric. These two self-recognition metrics were tested for association between each other, and with autistic traits. Results Fifty percent ‘self’ response was reached for a higher percentage of self in the auditory domain compared to the visual domain (t = 3.142; P < 0.01). No significant correlation was noted between self-recognition bias across sensory modalities (τ = −0.165, P = 0.204). Higher recognition bias for self-voice was observed in individuals higher in autistic traits (τ AQ = 0.301, P = 0.008). No such correlation was observed between recognition bias for self-face and autistic traits (τ AQ = −0.020, P = 0.438). Conclusions Our data shows that recognition bias for physical self-representation is not related across sensory modalities. Further, individuals with higher autistic traits were better able to discriminate self from other voices, but this relation was not observed with self-face. A narrow self-other overlap in the auditory domain seen in individuals with high autistic traits could arise due to enhanced perceptual processing of auditory stimuli often observed in individuals with autism.

A comparative corpus-assisted discourse study of the representations of hosts in promotional tourism discourse

Most studies concerned with the representations of local people in tourism discourse point to the prevalence of stereotypic images asserting that contemporary tourism perpetuates colonial legacy and gendered discursive practices. This claim has been, to some extent, contested in research that explores representations of hosts in local tourism materials claiming that tourism can also discursively resist the dominant Western imagery. While the evidence for the existence of hegemonic and diverging discourses about the local ‘Other’ seems compelling, the empirical basis of this research is rather small and often limited to one geographic context. The present study addresses these shortcomings by examining representations of hosts in a larger corpus of promotional tourism materials including texts produced by Western and local tourism industries. The data is investigated using the methodology of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS). By comparing external with internal (self) representations, this study verifies and refines some of the claims on the subject and offers a much more nuanced picture of representations that defies the black and white scenarios proposed in previous research

Im/possible Lives: Gender, Class, Self-Fashioning, and Affinal Solidarity in Modern South Asia

Drawing on ethnographic research and employing a micro-historical approach that recognizes not only the transnational but also the culturally specific manifestations of modernity, this article centers on the efforts of a young woman to negotiate shifting and conflicting discourses about what a good life might consist of for a highly educated and high caste Hindu woman living at the margins of a nonetheless globalized world. Newly imaginable worlds in contemporary Mithila,South Asia, structure feeling and action in particularly gendered and classed ways, even as the capacity of individuals to actualize those worlds and the “modern” selves envisioned within them are constrained by both overt and subtle means. In the context of shifting cultural anchors, new practices of silence, literacy, and even behaviors interpreted as “mental illness” may become tactics in an individual’s negotiation of conflicting self-representations. The confluence of forces at play in contemporary Mithila, moreover, is creating new structures of feeling that may begin to reverse long-standing locally held assumptions about strong solidarities between natal families and daughters, on the one hand, and weak solidarities between affinal families and new daughters-in-law, on the other.

A formação de personalidades éticas: representações de si e moral

The article presents studies of a current investigation among 75 adolescents from 12 to 15 years old, students of private schools of Campinas city, that have as main objective to notice a possible correspondence among the moral judgments and the representation that individuals have about themselves. From a questionnaire, the studies bring out the representations of these individuals and answer a questioning if they would have an ethical character or not and if these individuals would correspond to their moral judgments. The results point out to a correspondence among those whose self representations are characterized by more evolved ethical contents and judgments related to sensitivity and to the characters feelings involved in the situations described. Such studies validate the intention of this article to discuss the correspondences between ethics (how the individual sees himself/herself) and moral (how he/she judges the situations moral).

Moral e Ética: uma leitura psicológica

Após um século de reflexões e investigações, como era de se esperar, a Psicologia Moral apresenta sinais de esgotamento de seus referenciais teóricos clássicos. Consequentemente, novas perspectivas se abrem, entre elas a abordagem teórica que leva o nome de 'personalidade ética', cuja tese é: para compreendermos os comportamentos morais (deveres) dos indivíduos, precisamos conhecer a perspectiva ética (vida boa) adotadas por eles. Entre os invariantes psicológicos de realização de uma 'vida boa', está a necessidade de 'expansão de si próprio'. Como tal expansão implica ter 'representações de si' de valor positivo, entre elas poderão estar aquelas relacionadas à moral. Se estiverem, o sujeito experimentará o sentimento de dever, do contrário, a motivação para a ação moral será inexistente ou fraca.

Las Imágenes del malestar. Representaciones del yo y la construcción de subjetividad en la producción audiovisual contemporánea y en los nuevos dispositivos tecnológicos

El tema de la investigación propuesto aquí, se centra en el malestar social, y la representación de éste desde un punto de vista personal y autobiográfico, algo que en estas página denomino Autorepresentación del malestar social. ¿Cómo se autorepresenta el malestar y qué prácticas artísticas se emplean para ello? ¿Cuáles son la transformaciones que provocan estas prácticas artísticas en el terreno audiovisual? En este sentido, exploraremos dos vías de análisis: por un lado nos interesa observar cuales han sido las modificaciones que el poder ha desarrollado para establecer nuevas formas de explotación, y por otro lado, veremos como estas modificaciones están generando una nueva praxis social donde las prácticas artísticas cobran un nuevo y reforzado sentido, así como una nueva capacidad política, individual y colectiva a un mismo tiempo, cargada de una fuerza transformadora capaz de componer nuevos espacios de sujeto. Analizaremos, desde la representación del yo en la vida cotidiana, el género y las relaciones interpersonales, hasta las transformaciones contemporáneas del trabajo, y los cambios en la construcción de la subjetividad. El principal elemento en el que se apoyaran nuestras investigaciones será el anàlisis de producciones audiovisuales contemporáneas y la distribución de estas en algunas de las redes de comunicación contemporáneas, intentando mostrar, de esta manera, la interacción y los efectos directos que provocan en la realidad social.

Les pratiques d’écriture et de sociabilité de Louise d’Épinay à la lumière de ses contributions à la Correspondance littéraire et de ses lettres à Ferdinando Galiani (1755-1783)

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec l'Université Paris IV-Sorbonne.

Exploration du lien entre la qualité de la mentalisation et l'efficacité du rappel autobiographique

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Duque de Caxias para quem?: imaginários sociais e apropriações de territórios na cibercultura

A partir das múltiplas representações que se reproduzem sobre a cidade de Duque de Caxias ao longo dos anos, imaginários e identidades sociais são fortalecidos e transformados. No entanto, autorrepresentações, provindas de agentes culturais da cidade organizados em uma rede, que muito se fortalece com o uso da internet, buscam desconstruir estereótipos e reivindicar a cidade que eles querem e julgam ter direito. Neste contexto, a primeira parte do trabalho se dedica a uma investigação sobre como a cidade de Duque de Caxias foi e é representada por atores diversos, incluindo seus próprios moradores. São ressaltadas as aproximações entre a produção cultural dessa rede com a construção e ressignificação de símbolos e imaginários da cidade. São realizados, ainda, estudos de caso sobre o cineclube Mate com Angu, o coletivo de quadrinistas Capa Comics e o blog Lurdinha. A segunda parte do trabalho versa sobre as relações afetivas entre a população duque caxiense e os territórios habitados, em muito transformadas pelas produções culturais que enfatizam o pertencimento à cidade. O incentivo ao melhor uso dos espaços públicos e a criação de equipamentos de lazer se apresentam como essenciais neste processo. Os resultados dessa pesquisa apresentam uma reflexão sobre as potencialidades da internet para o fortalecimento das relações em rede, para oportunizar autorrepresentações e, ainda, para provocar mobilidades. As transformações ocorridas em torno das percepções sobre a cidade, a compreensão de pertencimento a ela e a apropriação dos espaços também são pontos destacados nesta dissertação.

A formação de personalidades éticas: representações de si e moral

O artigo apresenta os estudos de uma investigação atual entre 75 adolescentes de 12 a 15 anos, estudantes de colégios particulares da cidade de Campinas, que tem como principal objetivo constatar a possível correspondência entre os julgamentos morais e as representações que os sujeitos têm de si mesmos. A partir de um questionário, os estudos destacam as representações desses sujeitos e respondem a um questionamento de que teriam um caráter ético ou não e se corresponderiam a seus julgamentos morais. Os resultados apontam para uma correspondência entre aqueles cujas representações de si são caracterizadas por conteúdos éticos e julgamentos mais evoluídos quanto à sensibilidade aos sentimentos dos personagens envolvidos nas situações descritas. Tais estudos validam a intenção deste artigo de discutir as correspondências entre ética (como o sujeito se vê) e moral (como julga as situações morais).

A ética do desperdício: a influência da compaixão no querer fazer moral de adolescentes

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Bullying: dimensões psicológicas no desenvolvimento moral

Understanding and assessing the extent of psychological mechanisms that operate in actions of specific violence acts such as bullying can contribute to the discussion of educational interventions that promote moral education as desired by educational institutions. The current research aimed toD correlateD this form of violence called bullying to representations of the self and even to the ways in which the subjects self-regulate themselves in hypothetical situations which pose the problem, thus identifying their moral commitments or non-commitments. The procedures followed to check the presence of these correlationsDindicate that subjects whose self-representations are individualistic are less morally committed and more likely to be perpetrators in bullying situations. This shows that more than a social problem, the issues of coexistence should be treated from a moral perspective.

Escrevendo o próprio corpo: a problemática da autobiografia e da (auto)ficção em Caio Fernando Abreu e Hervé Guibert

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Finding a voice - Nollywood inspired filmmaking practices in Switzerland

Under the name Nollywood a unique video film industry has developed in Nigeria in the last few decades, which now forms one of the world’s biggest entertainment industries. With its focus on stories reflecting „the values, desires and fears” (Haynes 2007: 133) of African viewers and its particular way of production, Nollywood brings „lived practices and its representation together in ways that make the films deeply accessible and entirely familiar to their audience“ (Marston et al. 2007: 57). In doing so, Nollywood shows its spectators new postcolonial forms of performative self‐expression and becomes a point of reference for a wide range of people. However, Nollywood not only excites a large number of viewers inside and outside Nigeria, it also inspires some of them to become active themselves and make their own films. This effect of Nigerian filmmaking can be found in many parts of sub‐Saharan Africa as well as in African diasporas all over the world – including Switzerland (Mooser 2011: 63‐66). As a source of inspiration, Nollywood and its unconventional ways of filmmaking offer African migrants a benchmark that meets their wish to express themselves as minority group in a foreign country. As Appadurai (1996: 53), Ginsburg (2003: 78) and Marks (2000: 21) assume, filmmakers with a migratory background have a specific need to express themselves through media. As minority group members in their country of residence they not only wish to reflect upon their situation within the diaspora and illustrate their everyday struggles as foreigners, but to also express their own views and ideas in order to challenge dominant public opinion (Ginsburg 2003: 78). They attempt to “talk back to the structures of power” (2003: 78) they live in. In this process, their audio-visual works become a means of response and “an answering echo to a previous presentation or representation” (Mitchell 1994: 421). The American art historian Mitchell, therefore, suggests interpreting representation as “the relay mechanism in exchange of power, value, and publicity” (1994: 420). This desire of interacting with the local public has also been expressed during a film project of African, mainly Nigerian, first-generation migrants in Switzerland I am currently partnering in. Several cast and crew members have expressed feelings of being under-represented, even misrepresented, in the dominant Swiss media discourse. In order to create a form of exchange and give themselves a voice, they consequently produce a Nollywood inspired film and wish to present it to the society they live in. My partnership in this on‐going film production (which forms the foundation of my PhD field study) allows me to observe and experience this process. By employing qualitative media anthropological methods and in particular Performance Ethnography, I seek to find out more about the ways African migrants represent themselves as a community through audio‐visual media and the effect the transnational use of Nollywood has on their form of self‐representations as well as the ways they express themselves.