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

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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:)

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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>