This autoethnographic account explores the complex relationship between language and identity.
J.E. Sumerau·
All ContentAutoethnographic EssaysCelebrating Dr. Patricia Leavy's Social Fiction 2024Special Issues
··16 min readGratitude is a recurring theme I hear from readers of Patricia Leavy’s social fiction. This is an essay about Patricia Leavy novels.
"This autoethnographic poetry is born of my personal experience, witness, as well as currently chronicled and ancestral lore."
A Startling Note: "Looking for Gay Friends" in the Triangle Place narrates a gay man’s experience of sexual awakening on a university campus.
"My oil on canvas series, "Journey of Self Love," depicts a variation of obstacles I've personally had to endure throughout my life as a woman."
I pay homage to Nina Simone’s already iconic and thorough exploration of stereotypes by setting the project to the song “Four Women.”
"I had no idea what the repercussions would be should I disclose my identity to my students. Would I be fired? Would I be questioned? Would I be told not to talk of such things? This reticence is a sad reflection on my internalized homophobia, my being still uncomfortable enough with my identity such that I had to worry about keeping it secret."
"This autoethnographic essay explores in a (hopefully) creative way ideas about social class in relation to my own negotiations of identity and upbringing in eastern Sydney, Australia."
Narrating Estrangement is written by those who have decided to distance themselves from, or have been driven out by, their families.
”I share this artistic piece as an invitation to problematise and think further about not only the Autoethnographic “I/We” in what I/we can know about ourselves and our bodies but also to make space for the incoherence that becomes a part of “being” and “knowing” in explorations of fragmentation and loss.”
This article is a prequel to ongoing research into DIY Healing Within Ancestral Lands. A project born of growing up in a family system that was not kind, welcoming or loving.
I offer the following five poems to you. I hope that when you read/hear them you see a way into your own stories and ideas of poetic voice.
