It has been a journey of learning...

It has been an intensely immensely engaging experience writing this blog and who knows what will follow...

This photograph was taken at home:)

Final Post

Constructing ‘I’…-…Summing up

No matter what I think – the ‘I’ is an unknown universe.

Who am I?

Due to the complexity of both the autobiographical act and life writing there are many elements that can only be touched on in this ‘portfolio of life writing’ assignment. That part of my story captured on this blog contains elements of the personal but it is also a bricolage of information obtained from other sources and it is using something that is already available. We will touch briefly on the some of the other areas in the subject to give you, dear blog-reader, an idea about ways the university as an institution helps shape our knowledge and experience.

At first this image might not seem to have any relevance to the subject we are writing about, but you know, I felt a very strong connection to this during the process of construcing the blog, and my many my[selfs]. The above image is from the ABC Website story by Stuart Gary for ABC Science about Earth's gravity being shaped like a potato.  The link is ttp://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/01/3179871.htm

Genre –

We looked at some of Derrida's work, in particular, The Law of the Genre. Essentially Derrida questions why we use genre. He posits that texts themselves don’t sign that they are genres within the work but it is the literary and theoretical conventions that are applied against a text that consigns it to a specific space on the bookshelves of book-shops and within literary critique, for example, fantasy literature. While other theorists like Ralph Cohen suggest that genre classification is actually important as the framework that allows text to challenge dominant ideologies.

See what I mean about fantasy - that green light in my photo got there all by itself - the start of a rainbow maybe?...

Criticism and Interpretation –

We looked at the way that literary theory is used to read and interpret a text to try and draw out the best way of understanding that text. There have been a number of critical theory movements including Formalism, New Criticism, Postructuralism and Postmodernism.  Using a particular theory will entail using particular practices and tools. For example, a New Criticism approach uses close reading and focuses on reading of a text through the use of literary devices such as voice, tone, metaphor and imagery to support the meaning within the text.  New Criticism is concerned with how language operates within the text and how the text operates as a whole (Rivkin and Ryan p. 5). New Criticism however, may not be the best theoretical approach to analysing new modes of life writing or autobiographical act such as blogs.  In literary theory, interpretation works with criticism and some of the readings we have looked at in this course by, for example, by Niall Lucy, discuss the relevance of the modes used by the literary critic and just as text themselves can be considered legitimate or not, so too can there be legitimate or non-legitimate forms of critique.

Now believe it or not, this is a blackhole and the photograph is taken from one of my favourite websites for stories about our universe. Our universe, mmm...it is not ours really is it? The start of another philosophical debate:)Anyway, the universe is make up of planets and stars and blackholes and many other elements that I cannot even name. Similarly, the most fascinating aspect of Literary Theory for me is that there many concepts at play and that there is elasticity at the boundaries and borders of texts, genres, and hopefully ideologies. One of the many interesting topics we covered was that of Paracriticism - see below:) The link to the ABC website where I get most of my planetary information from is: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/01/3179871.htm

Paracriticism –

This was particularly interesting and as discussed briefly before, some literary theory practices may not be really suitable to critique some of the new modes of used in the act of life writing. Ihab Hassan (who named this particular type of literary criticism) responded to the changing demands made by the changing literary forms and moved away from traditional ways of thinking about the form and language of literature. He states that “Criticism should learn about playful discontinuity and become itself less than the sum of its parts. It should offer the reader empty spaces, silences, in which he can meet himself in the presence of literature.” (Hassan, p. 25). Hassan questioned why literary criticism seemed to be held back by its own critiques and “…lags behind the literature of its day.” (Hassan p. 3).  

Well at least that narrating ‘I’ managed to cover some of the elements covered in the course about the complexities involved in shaping the constructed ‘I’. Also, as mentioned in the previous post about creative fictional pieces of work there are opportunities to apply for funding to help with all sorts of creative projects, and I actually went online and found out the following information: 

Hi there, I am so excited, I found the Australia council website and information about a great initiative called “What makes me”. This involves going through a series of steps to supply information about the things you like and then the information is pulled together to make a very colourful cube. So now I am a prescribed ‘cubed’ ‘I’ construct. I'll try to copy the cube for you to have a look at – now let’s get it on the page for you…

mmm...not working yet
click again
 http://www.whatmakesme.com.au/whatmakesus/cube/2598

No...it still would not work but if you click on the link you can see the cube 

Well it is sort of cube-like isnt it:) and I think the image says something relevant - I took this photo in Tasmania earlier this year...and was totally amused:)

But it is interesting, although I have constructed my ‘self’ through a cubing process, I am finding it difficult to cut across a picture of my cube for you to see…but at least you can get the idea from the above image. You can also log on to the link and my cube will come up. So the result is that I am a linked ‘I’ construct and probably an embedded ‘I’ construct, but I am also a disappeared ‘I’ construct (sigh).

I actually did some homework and I have found the following information from the blogger upload page:

We can't find the image at that URL.

• Please check the address for typing errors.
• Make sure the image is public. If your image is protected by a password, or on an internal network, we will not be able to read it.

So there are technical reasons - it is not just me - the cube is password protected, but you definitely can view by following the link:):)

http://www.whatmakesme.com.au/whatmakesus/cube/2598

As you can see, we are back where we started with this writing project. So undertaking a process of being constructed through an organisational process and practice could be considered either as a way of fracturing self (Stanley p. 41) or as a way of trying to make a coherent self through a process of selectively organising different parts of the self (Gilpin 232). Regardless of your perspective on the process of self construction or fracturing, it often occurs through a process of structured power dynamics where boundaries are negotiated and re-negotiated (Gilpin 232). This could be said to result in a collaborative effort between the individual and the organisation but questions remain about what sort of self is ‘resulted’ and how the modern modes of undertaking the autobiographical and life writing act can be critiqued.

But more importantly, dear blog-reader, what do you make of it allJJ

__________________________________

WORKS CITED

Chandler. Daniel, Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web viewed 3 May 2011<http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html>

Gilpin, Dawn. Working the Twittersphere: Microblogging as professional identity constructionby. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), The Networked Self: Identity, Community and Culture on Social Network Sites. New York: Routledge. In press. <http://asu.academia.edu/DawnGilpin/Papers/120301/Working%20the_Twittersphere_Microblogging_as_professional_identity_construction

Scott, Joan W. (1991) "The Evidence of Experience" Critical Inquiry, 17(4): 773-797 viewed 5 April 2011 < http://lib.monash.edu/non-cms/resourcelists/a/ats4864.html>

Smith, Sidonie; Watson, Julia. Reading Autobiography : A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press, 2001 viewed 17 April 2011 <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uow/Doc?id=10151063&ppg=66>

Stanley, Liz (2000). "From self-made women to women's made selves? Audit selves, simulation and surveillance in the rise of the public woman" in T. Cosslett, C. Lury and P. Summerfield (eds), Feminisim and Autobiography. London: Routledge: 40-60.

The environment (the debate continues doesn't it), and post four:)

The environment (the debate continues doesn't it?)

A really interesting story by Peter Ryan on the upcoming CHOGM meeting taken from the ABS Website - the link is below for you to have a look at if you want to:) http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/01/3232530.htm?section=justin

The story discusses Australia's potential move to introduce a tax on carbon emissions but highlights the many different agenda's each country has which makes an international agreement on carbon taxes hard to achieve. Guess we will have to wait and see if it will be another Cancun and Copenhagen meeting:) The photo below is also taken from the story...what do you think of the image?

Post Four

Constructing ‘I’   -   Reflecting

No matter what I think – the ‘I’ is an unknown universe.

Who am I?

“The remove - “in the solitude of the work – the work of art, the literary work – we discover a more essential solitude […] the person who is writing the work is dismissed” (Dworkin p. 17).

The above quote was taken from Nick Thurston's discussion of Maurice Blanchot's work in considering the process a reader undertakes when reading a text. The reader will often make notes in the margin of a text, or hold a book at the margin. The main point about the notes made at the margin by a reader, an editor or critic is that it can impact on the centre of the page…the work itself. The exciting concept about writing or working from the margin is how it can be used to confront or challenge negative dominant stereotypes. In this way, the writing at the margin can be the focus of the story that the reader reads rather than the dominant discourse held by the centre of the work, and as the passage suggests, the author of the dominant discourse can be disappeared.

Now taking this concept a little further let's look at what can happen through the Curriculum Vitae (CV) process. As referenced earlier in the blog posts, Liz Stanley raises the issue of specific auto/biographical practices “…enacted within organisational contexts…” and are significant for “…the ways in which selves are recorded and refracted by the regulatory mechanisms of organisational encounters.” (Stanley p. 41). Organisational practices set up a range of identities, or identity parts, that the individual by default becomes responsible for keeping up to date. An example of this is the (CV). Each time I applied for a new position or went for a promotion I had to re-adjust my CV. This is what you are advised to do…make sure you include all the elements necessary in your CV to ensure that your job application stands out.

CURRICULUM VITAE

FOR

THE CONSTRUCING ‘I’ NARRATORS

Mmmm...

Maintaining several identities can be labourious – or is it?  Such practices are so much a part of the job application process that we don’t even think about it, other than to groan inwardly if it has been some time since you last updated said CV.  A philosophical debate from an organisational perspective centred around the idea that CV's are specifically shaped to achieve a particular outcome using specific language and cultural codes could be useful in providing a broader definition of suitable applicants.  Management practices can, or need to, or should disrupt the 'perfect applicant for the position' scenario to ensure that the right applicant for the position is actually appointed. So the 'self' I create for my CV is not my 'wholeself' - it had been pummelled by certain constraints within the position application criteria.

Choices were then made by the selection panel process used in the organisation I worked for, and whatever the outcome, the course of my life was changed:) Now what has this to do with the introductory paragraph to this post? Well, good question! Hope I can answer it. I felt a certain connection with the article and what it alluded to, to the mystery surrounding language, particularly how it can position (or not) in this case, a job applicant, and how it can be used to break-down barriers. As I look back on my CV's they have been updated along the way and the language used has changed. How many CV's should I invent, make-up, or write now? Is there a risk that one can become too refracted? 



mmm...

Going back to the quote at the beginning of the post, if the writer becomes dismissed, disappeared what is the function of the reader?  Do you define the reader's function or does the narrating 'I'...what do you think and what does the 'I' reader of myself think?

Well let us try and answers a question, the question, shall we? Let’s try answering the question

raised in the first passage of each of the posts.  DRUM ROLL........................................

Who am I? 

Well it is all about the construct of the ‘I’ or the

author and the narrator isn’t it?

                                                The ‘I’, the self, the author, the narrator

                                                                     and the writer - which is me:)?

who wants to be all of those 'I' constructs in a harmonious whole

I can be constructed in the experience of writing a text and as Liz Stanley has shown in the process of interacting with organisational constructs. But I can also construct myself for myself and leave enough room for a reader to be involved in the process.

Now as a narrator, writer, author to be, I want to undertake a creative writing project and as students we have been advised that we will have to include an exegesis as part of that creative our main writing project. I will look at the requirements and factor them into my work plan.  It will be interesting to see how the two elements come together:)

But, GETTING BACK TO THE PRACTICAL, (don't tell me you lost track - we were looking at the CV) if you want to be a creative writer you might need funding to help with your project. If you do, you have to go through the funding application process… do you see where I am heading here? I assume and I haven’t looked yet at the funding application requirements and meeting them process, but I would imagine that I would have to provide a CV – an updated CV – to support the application.

Wow - I think I think it is time to actually have some fun with my CV's:)

I like metaphors too:)

_______________________________________________ 

WORKS CITED

Dworkin. Craig (2006) "Cenography: Editor's Introduction" Nick Thurston’s Reading the Remove of Literature. York: Information as Material.  Available at: http://english.utah.edu/eclipse/Editor/DworkinCenography.pdf  Accessed 5 April 2011. Web.

Smith, Sidonie; Watson, Julia. Reading Autobiography : A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press, 2001 viewed 17 April 2011 
          <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uow/Doc?id=10151063&ppg=66>

The environment, technology and post three...

The environment

The Ross Garnaut Climate Change Final Review was launched yesterday and will no doubt cause much discussion and more debates between those who want a business as usual approach and those who definitely want to move on global warming.  I think though, that people want Australia to take some sort of action and 'get with the program'. China is! A Federal Government ETR, implemented from 2012, is the best option for providing an economically efficient policy that is allied with environmental actions necessary to deal with global warming. A well developed ETR offers far stronger incentives and control mechanisms needed to influence the shift from fossil fuel reliance to renewable energy technology than either a well designed carbon tax or an ETS.

Technology

I have had an interesting experience in writing these posts in that I had images that I wanted to inlcude from the original text I had prepared, but can't upload them for technological reasons of some sort...so there are constraints which present opportunities:):)

Post Three

Constructing ‘I’   -   Authorship

No matter what I think – the ‘I’ is an unknown universe.

Who am I?

The interiority of the journal voice asks what does it means to be an author who has to continually move from my space-page and interact with images and process to negotiate the daily boundaries of posting on the blog. What is the role of authorship in an autobiographical act? My constructed ‘I’ blog has in fact constructed many “I” modes for my[self]. I am a single construct of many parts – or am I actually many constructs? Who knowsJJ For example I am the following:

        A templatised ‘I’.

        An accepted, and authenticated ‘I’.

        A designerised ‘I’.

        A profilised and pictorialised ‘I”.

        An editoralised ‘I’.

        A narrating ‘I’.

        A narrated ‘I”.

Are my ‘I’s transparent enough do you think?

As we can see, the autobiographical act is not a simple one and serves to complicate the reading of a text by complicating the position of the author and the narrator in life writing (Anderson, Subject outline p. 12). Foucault was interested in the role of the author of a fictional work and suggests that the author should be looked at in terms of ‘the author as function’. (Foucault, 1984, p. 102). Like Joan Scott, Foucault suggests that the author is externally constructed to some degree by the reader or critic through broadly accepted social and cultural norms. Foucault raises the subject of discourses and how dominant discourses can be used in a variety of ways.
For example, autobiographical authors from minority or marginalised groups such as women can use autobiographical or life writing to examine and “renegotiate their cultural marginality and enter into literary history.” (Smith and Watson p. 141). The political function of these minority narratives in confronting negative stereotypes of both gender and race and questioning the social expectations of women in the society serves as a critique of dominant discourses. Those stereotypes that come into view are confronted and then re-constructed. Challenges arise when the experience of autobiographical narrator is told through “a cultural script” for example, “the postcolonial subject writing back to the empire that formerly colonized them as less than human” (Smith and Watson p. 176). This is a really interesting way to think about the “I” in autobiography as it raises the involvement made by the politics associated with dominant discourses.

  

Liz Stanley’s article on the relationship between the individual and the social structure also discusses the political involved with everyday social process where knowledge about people and their lives is constantly exchange, remodelled and remade (42).

Woman's Song

A woman's strength is her love

that she uses to nurture.

Her serenity is the

mystery

That from the dawn of time.

Reaches into the

Future.

As she sings a timeless

song

Her love envelops

All.

A woman's spirit in

time

with rhythms of

the

Earth grows

and sustains.

A woman's voice reaches

down

through generations

is heard

by future

children.

Who reach back, and

then turn

their faces

to the future,

knowing love
as a constant. ©

Woops…the poem slipped into the academic, or is the academic taking over the poem (Perry p. 1). How one fits within these social structures (or does not fit in) confines the individual or group of individuals within normative constructs of ‘self’ through boundaried normalising discourses.  We can see that through media items talking about people who use Centrelink and other social services. Judgements are made and cast and the boundaried walls make it harder for people to break-through, scale, climb over or even cut through.  It would be nice to fly though wouldn't it:)J

Which brings us back to the questions about what kind of ‘self’ are you reading when you read this blog dear blog-reader? What do you make of my narrative? Is there a cultural meaning of ‘authorship’ for you? Are there any particular cultural meanings that you are taking away or bringing to this post and blog site? What role am I playing? Or is my act of autobiography sharing in the larger historical and cultural contexts? Does my narrative transform anything? Can we historicise the autobiographic practices I am using in my blog? (Smith and Watson p. 166) Ahh…how about that…there is now homework for you dear blog-reader. Do try and answer those questions and I will refer back to them in my future…J

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WORKS CITED

Foucault, Michel. (1984), “What is an Author?” in Paul Rabinow (ed.) Foucault Reader. Penguin Books: 101-120 viewed 5 April, 2011 http://lib.monash.edu/non-cms/resourcelists/a/ats4864.html

Perry, Gaylene. (1998) "Writing in the Dark: Exorcising the Exegesis" Text: Journal of Writing and Text Courses. 2(2) viewed 5 April, 2011 http://www.textjournal.com.au/oct98/perry.htm 

Scott, Joan W. (1991) "The Evidence of Experience" Critical Inquiry, 17(4): 773-797 viewed 5
         April 2011 < http://lib.monash.edu/non-cms/resourcelists/a/ats4864.html>

Smith, Sidonie; Watson, Julia. Reading Autobiography : A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives.

         Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press, 2001 viewed 17 April 2011 

          <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uow/Doc?id=10151063&ppg=66>

Global warming....memory...

It is great to see the possiblility at last of some action on global warming. While a carbon tax or an ETS is a step, an appropriately designed ETR offers several distinct advantages over a Carbon Tax or an ETS. Firstly, like a carbon tax, ETR would provide price certainty for business, industry and householders. Furthermore, funds raised by the ETR could be directed towards the research and further development of renewable energy technology as well as the deployment on a commercial scale of renewable energy technology options already available. Secondly, important environmental benefits as well as economic benefits and efficiencies are gained which can be harnessed - but it will take bi-partisan support from governments at all levels to really get the show on the road.

Post Two

Constructing ‘I’   -   Memory

No matter what I think – the ‘I’ is an unknown universe.

Who am I?

In the process of constructing this and navigating through the organisational barriers and boundaries I now have many ‘I’ constitutive parts. As I am that site of a ‘self’ constructed through the blog that exists between the boundaries of organisational constructs and this now raises questions for me about how to write to  “…memory as a source of the life narrative and that which authenticates the act of life writing?” (Subject Outline, p. 11).  What role will memory play for me? How will I portray it on the blog? Will I be self-reflexive about the act of remembering? Will I speak about the problems of remembering? 

Don't you just love sunsets - this is a photograph I took in Tasmania last year...so I do have a photo to support my memory, but is it a memory related to anything is this post...lets read on shall we...


What means of accessing memory will be incorporated within the text and photos I use and will you, the reader/critic be able to “identify and distinguish sources of memory in the text?” Will you also be able to identify what acts of remembering are utilised? (Smith and Watson p. 172). An interesting part about keeping a blog is that it can be shared with the public, so it is a private writing of ‘self’ act delivered in a public space-place. By opening it up to you the reader, and me the reader, I can receive comments from the people who are reading the blog (is this a big assumption – that people would find my blog interesting enough to read?). I can also send myself comments mmm...I like that I think?  It would be interesting to know that other people share the same opinions that I doJ 

Okay, so what has this to do with memory – the topic for the day - well…as this blog is part of an assignment I am completing for a university writing project I face the issue of working out what to share…should I share…what should I share…what do you want to read…you the reader/s who is/are relying on the veracity of my post, and I who am relying on my memory, we share the need for some verisimilitude.  Fortunately for me, by using a blogspace and blogging in the blogosphere space-place, I can incorporate images to support my thoughts, surplant my thoughts, enhance my thoughts…render me complete, or in fact serve to disappear/dematerialize me.

This mode of story telling acts to subordinate the other parts of my narrator life, I am not sharing any information about myself beyond what is in the posts.

I remember, a long time ago, that hills were wooded, and lakes ran clear, and fish swam happily, and fisherpeople sat in their chairs on the shore, rods propped up next to them, lines dangling in the water, while they, the fisherpeople read their books or contemplated the air that they breathed or the blueness of the water…I remember when.  ‘Do I? is that my memory, or something my Grandfather told me…is there a photo that I can find to support the experience?  Let me look…mmm...now have to move to the ‘add a picture dialogue box’ choose a filespace, and then choose a photo, and then upload the photo, and then position the photo…just a moment, I forgot…I don’t have an ‘add a picture dialogue box’ button attached to my brain yet… but on my computer I did find a picture of peaceful water!’

Now from a subjective position I could argue that the photo provides some indication of the essence I was trying to create in the above passage about when our water and air were cleaner, clearer, more…natural.  But does that work for you dear blog reader?  What sort of memory does the narrative provide for you …for me I love the photo, but what does this post say about me? Is she any closer to identifying who she is yet? I hope so otherwise it might be a long week - oh by the way the lovely sunset photo - its not related to anything in particular, except that it is another way of remembering - or is it? what does a photo remember for us, and just as importantly, what does that photo tell the viewer about the content of the photo - the answers might not be the same  - back to the drawing board - always more questionsJ

_____________________________________________________________________________

WORKS CITED

Monash University. ATS4864. Literary Theory (Life Writing) Subject Outline 2011

          Web viewed 3 May 2011

          < http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/units/ATS4864.html >

Smith, Sidonie; Watson, Julia. Reading Autobiography : A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives.
            Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press, 2001 viewed 17 April 2011
           <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uow/Doc?id=10151063&ppg=66>