scholarly journals The heuristic value of autobiographies for gender studies: comparing the theoretical results of Russian and foreign studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-245
Author(s):  
Natalia L Pushkareva
Keyword(s):  
Gender Studies ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Gender History ◽  
Women's Autobiographies ◽  
Theoretical Results ◽  
Qualitative Changes

Heuristic value of autobiographies for specialists in gender and female studies (based on the comparison of theoretical results of Russian and international autobiographical studies). The article discusses the qualitative changes in the study of autobiographies in historical works. The author focuses on the importance of gender studies in the field of complex relations between various approaches, including the philosophical, psychological, and linguistic way of analyzing life histories, in general, and women’s autobiographies, in particular (which comprises using the theory of female writing created by French feminist philosophers), as well as old and recent literature in the field of autobiographical research. The gender approach to the analysis of documents makes it possible to conclude that men report less about their family and private life and tend to give this life a different meaning and place in the system of value hierarchies. The second conclusion when comparing male and female autobiographies is the individualized and independent representation of the ego in life stories. Analysts point out that when collecting material about men’s lives, it is the gender of the story collector that is important. When talking to a female interviewer, the narrator presents the same life events in a different way than to male interviewer. When reading an egotext, a male analyst immediately forms a male community and, at the same time, hierarchies typical of relations between men. Keywords: autobiography, women, gender, gender history, history methodology, biographi- cal research, memory psychology, historiography

scholarly journals Rewriting the Women Enmity Lore: New Voices in Autobiographical Narratives

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Anthonia Makwemoisa Yakubu
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Autobiographical Narratives ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Women's Autobiographies ◽  
Erroneous Belief ◽  
The Common ◽  
Divide And Rule

Many women were socially conditioned as children to believe that gender operates on a superiority/inferiority axis – the male has been naturally created to be in charge and to take dominion of all living and non-living things including plants, animals, fishes, birds, children, and women. For the women, they are to be submissive to the biological order of things which patriarchy has worked hard to institutionalise. One of the means patriarchy has adopted to sustain this belief is the divide and rule tactic, where women are taught to believe that they cannot work together, cannot love one another and cannot support one another because they do not like themselves. This belief is propagated through folklore, especially in co-wife rivalry tales. Another common instance is the raging ‘war’ between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. This paper will analyse the common myth that women are their own worst enemies through selected Nigerian folktales, and in the second part, will analyse contemporary Nigerian women’s autobiographies, with particular emphasis on the 3-volume biographical compendium, Women of Valour, and how these women negated this erroneous belief in their narratives. One of the findings of this paper is that women’s autobiographies have significantly disabuse many of these patriarchal myths about women, thereby rewriting and re-narrating women’s life histories. Another finding is that many of the women featured in the biography used the medium as a platform to voice themselves into being, thereby empowering themselves through the narration of their life stories.

The Contemporary Serbian Historiography on Women in the Independent Serbian State (1878–1918): An Overview

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 62-75
Author(s):  
Yulia V. Lobacheva
Keyword(s):  
Gender Studies ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Women's Issues ◽  
Biographical Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modernization Process ◽  
19Th And 20Th Century ◽  
Current Stage

This article aims to consider how Serbian scholars/historians approach to the study of Serbian women in the history of the independent Serbian state and the Serbian society in 1878–1918 at the current stage of the research (from the beginning of 1990th until 2017). This paper will give an overview of some of the main areas of historical studies considering Serbian women’s “being and life”. For example the historiography on history of “women’s question” including women’s movement and/or feminism will be considered as well as biographical research, the study of women’s position through the lens of the modernization process in Serbia in the 19th and 20th Century, Serbian women’s issues in gender studies and through the history of everyday and private life and family, the analysis of the perception of Serbian woman by outside observers including the study of the image of Serbian woman created/constructed by “others”.

scholarly journals The (mis)uses of life histories. The linguistic turn, life histories and (women’s) life stories

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
Claudia de Lima Costa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Cultural Scripts ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
The Social ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Women's Lives

This paper retraces the debates on life-histories before and after the linguistic turn in the social sciences, and, more specifically, in the anthropological tradition. It stresses how poststructuralist feminist methodological, theoretical, and political appropriations of personal narratives represent a significant textual intervention in the gendered social-cultural scripts of women’s lives.

Capturing life histories about movements into and out of poverty: A road with pits and bumps

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tineke Schiettecat ◽  
Griet Roets ◽  
Michel Vandenbroeck
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Social Work Interventions ◽  
A Current

In order to take into account the power imbalances typically implicated in knowledge production about the complex social problem of poverty, social work researchers have increasingly acknowledged the importance of grasping the viewpoints and perspectives of people in poverty situations. In this contribution, we accordingly reflect on a current life history research project that retrospectively explores the life stories of parents with young children with regard to their mobility into and out of poverty that is examined in dynamic interaction with social work interventions. In this article, we discuss methodological and ethical challenges and complexities that we unexpectedly encountered in our research venture, as illustrated by three exemplary vignettes. These examples demonstrate issues of power between the researcher and the research participants that are not only inevitable, but also generate dilemmas, struggles and ambiguities that often remain underexposed in the ways scientific insights are reported. Rather than disguising these pits and bumps, we argue for a reflexive research stance which makes these issues of power in knowledge production susceptible to contemplation and scrutiny.

Telling

Out in Time ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 67-90
Author(s):  
Perry N. Halkitis
Keyword(s):  
Gay Men ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Critical Life Events ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
The Impact

Gay men experience the process of coming out to various groups of individuals, in myriad contexts, and throughout the course of their lives. For many gay men, telling one’s parents and families represents the most significant act of disclosure. Methods used for coming out to parents, circumstances by which the men came out, and reactions of their families in both the short and long term are explored. A variety of different approaches are evidenced in the life stories. The impact of these critical life events is considered in relation to the well-being and health of each of the men. Coming out to parents and family is challenging in every generation, but the circumstances related to coming out are influenced and shaped by both the sociopolitical contexts of the time and the crisis of each generation.

Incoherence matters

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-300
Author(s):  
Anselma Gallinat
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
East Germany ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
German Unification ◽  
Narrative Coherence ◽  
Value System

Life-stories are usually seen as showing considerable coherence even where they include turning points. More recent work has in contrast noted that “living” or “small narratives” do not follow this rule but contrastingly enable the pondering of unresolved life-events helping to develop understanding. This potential is particularly valuable in contexts of fundamental regime-change where changes of the value-system, such as after transition from state socialism to democracy, pose considerable challenges to narrative coherence. The article suggests reconsidering the question of coherence in life-stories and draws on two examples of individuals who experienced life in East Germany and German unification to argue that struggles for coherence in the life-story can be indicative of the lack of wider shared frameworks for the understandings of national events and historical problems.

Future Directions in Latin American Gender History

1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna J. Guy
Keyword(s):  
Gender Studies ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Women's Studies ◽  
American History ◽  
Gender History ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Great Honor ◽  
Latin American History ◽  
Brazilian Studies ◽  
American Gender

I want to take this opportunity to thank Eric Van Young for inviting me to give this speech today. It is a great honor and a pleasure to have the opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts concerning the development of gender studies in Latin American history as well as the issues that need to be addressed in future years. When I first became interested in gender history in the 1970s, it seemed unlikely that journals such as Luso-Brazilian Studies would ever dedicate an entire issue to women's studies. Yet this year there is such an issue. It helps us appreciate how accepted gender studies have become for Latin American historians.

A narrative analysis of behaviourally troubled adolescents' life stories

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Sanderson ◽  
Anne McKeough
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Behavioural Difficulties ◽  
Street Youths ◽  
Violent Acts ◽  
Gender Groups ◽  
Emotional And Behavioural Difficulties

The purpose of this study was to explore street youths' life histories to assess how early negative experiences (e.g., maltreatment) contributed to alternative developmental paths marked by emotional and behavioural difficulties. Ten male and female participants responded to an attachment questionnaire and told their life stories. The data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The results showed that both groups experienced difficulties in attaining educational, employment and relational successes. However, differences were found between gender groups in views of self, with females often describing themselves as victims whereas males' views were often characterized by self-efficacy stemming from successful completion of criminal or violent acts – in other words, as victimizers. Finally, it was found that males were more able to apply developmental advanced interpretations to their life experiences.

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