Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 09:46:57 -0500 (EST)
From: David Butz <dbmarley-AT-spartan.ac.BrockU.CA>
Subject: Re: authoethnography



Mary Louise Pratt is professor in the Departments of Spanish and
Portuguese, and Comparative Literature at Stanford. In 1992 she published
a book called IMPERIAL EYES: TRAVEL WRITING AND TRANSCULTURATION
(Routledge), in which she develops some thoughts about transculturation in
the "colonial contact zone". She describes autoethnography, or
autoethnographic expression as characteristic of the way "indigenous"
inhabitants of the contact zone deal with their transcultural interaction
with colonising groups. From P.7 of Imperial Eyes:

"A third and final idiosyncratic term that appears in what follows is
"autoethnography" or "autoethnographic expression". I use these terms to
refer to instances in which colonised subjects undertake to represent
themsleves in ways that engage with the coloniser's own terms. If
ethnographic texts are a means by which Europeans represent to themselves
their (usually subjugated) others, autoethnographic texts are those the
others construct in response to or in dialogue with those metropolitan
representations... Autoethnographic texts are not, then, what are usually
thought of a "authentic" or autochthonous forms of self-representation...
Rather autoethnography involves partial collaboration with and
appropriation of the idioms of the conqueror.... (p.8)though I have bee
nunable to pursue the matter here, I believe that autoethnographic
expression is a very widespread phenomenon of the contact zone, and will
become important in unravelling the histories of imperial subjugation and
resistance as seen from the site of their occurence."

Unfortunately, Pratt only gestures toward the concept of "autoethography"
in the remainder of the book. I think a more satisfying treatment of
autoethnography (although I do't think he uses the term) is provided by
Michael Taussig in his MIMESIS AND ALTERITY, and previous works... he
plays a lot with some of Benjamin's ideas, and adds conceptualisation of
memesis to an understanding of what I take to be autoethnographic
expression. In this vein, I think Bhabha's work on mimicry and colonial
ambivalence to be relevant... and also James Scott's studies of everyday
resistance, especially in DOMINATION AND THE ARTS OF RESISTANCE. Some
other folks on the list provided more literary takes on autoethnography,
and provided some sources, but I haven't had a chance to digest these
yet... I'm hoing to start on Francoise Lionnett's book today... it just
arrived in interlibrary loan.

Hope this helps a small bit, David. 



     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---