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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF GRAPHICS ................................................................................................................ iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................v

ABSTRACT (English) ................................................................................................................. xvi

ABOUT THE COVER ................................................................................................................ xix

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................. xxi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... xxi

GUIDING LIGHTS ................................................................................................................... xxiii

HEARKENING A CALL FOR ―A MORE RECOGNIZABLY HUMAN PERSONA‖ ................................... xxiv

WRITING CONVENTIONS ................................................................................................... xxviii

CONTEXTUALIZING QUOTATIONS ................................................................................... xxix

PART ONE: ―I‖ ...............................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1: WHAT I AM DOING AND WHY ..........................................................................2

Writing and Romantic Individualism .......................................................................................3

Postmodern Problematizing of Individualism .........................................................................5

Owner

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Who writes and about whom in personal narrative? A practice-based dialogical inquiry into the influence of Postmodernism and Social constructionism on the understanding and practice of nine writers of personal narrative. Rodney Lewis Merrill

Postmodern Skepticism of Positivist Metaphysics ..................................................................6

Mikhail Bakhtin‘s Dialogism ...................................................................................................7

Non‐reductionist Inquiry is Less Tidy ......................................................................................9

Synopsis and a Look Ahead ...................................................................................................10

CHAPTER 2: AN ACCOUNT OF GETTING TO HERE AND NOW ........................................12

If I Only Knew Now What I Knew Then ...............................................................................13

A Linguistic Prolog .................................................................................................................13

Who ―I‖ Is and How That Affects This Work ........................................................................17

A Brief Autoethnography ......................................................................................................21

Demographics ..................................................................................................................22

A Narrative of Marginality ..............................................................................................22

Writing as Keel ................................................................................................................24

I Don‘t Need Nobody, No, No, No. ................................................................................26

College and University. ...................................................................................................28

An Accounting of Vocations and Avocations. ................................................................29

A Postmodern Dissertation? ..........................................................................................31

Why this Dissertation Inquiry? ........................................................................................33


PART TWO: PROCESS & METHOD .........................................................................................35

CHAPTER 3: A PROCESS CHRONICLE ...................................................................................36

Devising a Cover for the Dissertation ....................................................................................36

Harkening a Call ....................................................................................................................36

Writing Chapter 1: What I am Doing and Why ......................................................................37

Writing Chapter 2: An Account of Getting to Here and Now ................................................37

Writing Chapter 3: A Process Chronicle ................................................................................38

Writing Chapter 4: Method ...................................................................................................39

Writing the Literature Reviews (Chapters 5, 6, 7) .................................................................39

Writing Chapter 5: On Knowing .....................................................................................41

Writing Chapter 6: On Authoring ....................................................................................41

Writing Chapter 7: On Dialogics .....................................................................................43

Writing Chapter 8: The Writer Dialogs ..................................................................................43

Writing Chapter 9: Responsive Discussion of Dialogs ..........................................................45

Writing Chapter 10: Reflections & Regrets (Things Learned along the Way) ......................46

Wabi‐Sabi ........................................................................................................................46

Philosophical Issues of Method .......................................................................................46

Sampling ..........................................................................................................................47

Regrets .............................................................................................................................48

Writing Chapter 11: Parting Words ..................................................................................49

Dead Man Writing ...........................................................................................................50

Luminous Exceptions to the Encapsulated Experience ...................................................50

Being Written While Writing ..........................................................................................50

Writing as a Transformative Experience .........................................................................51


CHAPTER 4: METHOD ...............................................................................................................53

A Postmodern Constructionist Stance ..................................................................................53

Dialog as Method .................................................................................................................54

Hypotheses and Assumptions ..............................................................................................56

Interviewing .........................................................................................................................57

Creative Interviewing ......................................................................................................58

Dialogical‐Constructionist‐Postmodern Interviewing .....................................................59

Writing and Reportage as Method .....................................................................................61

Why a Dialogical Method? ..................................................................................................63

Dialog as Generative Research ........................................................................................65

Dialog and the Workshop Method ..................................................................................66

Documents Common to all Dialogs ..................................................................................67

Rationale for Interview Questions ....................................................................................67

Questions as a Whole ......................................................................................................68

Questions as Clusters .......................................................................................................69

Selecting and Inviting Participants ....................................................................................73

Snowball (Purposeful) Sampling .....................................................................................74

Sample Size .....................................................................................................................76

Sample Characteristics ....................................................................................................76

Sample Distribution .........................................................................................................82

The Pilot Interview ...............................................................................................................83

Revising ―Pilot Interview‖ Ques ons ..................................................................................84

Collecting Data ......................................................................................................................84


PART THREE: THE LITERATURE ............................................................................................86

CHAPTER 5: ON KNOWING ......................................................................................................87

A Modernist/Humanist Take on Knowledge and Reality ......................................................88

Knowledge Construction as Linguistic and Communal Action .............................................90

Knowledge is Historical and Political ....................................................................................95

A Sociology of Knowledge ....................................................................................................96

Knowledge Communities ......................................................................................................98

The Social Construction of Meaning ...................................................................................101

How ―It‖ Looks to Me ........................................................................................................102

Synopsis and a Look Ahead .................................................................................................105

CHAPTER 6: ON AUTHORING ................................................................................................107

Grand Narratives .................................................................................................................107

The ―Great Man‖ Narra ve ...........................................................................................108

Personal Narra ve and the ―Great Man‖ Tradi on .......................................................111

Personhood & Identity ........................................................................................................115

The Dissolution of Authority ...............................................................................................116

The ―Death of Man‖ ......................................................................................................117

Decentering the Writer‐as‐Author .................................................................................123

Remembering as Factual ....................................................................................................128

Writing as a Private Activity ................................................................................................137

Writing as Dialog .................................................................................................................146

A Dialogical Slant on Personal Writing ...............................................................................152

Writing as Dialogically Transformative ...............................................................................154

Two to Tango and More to Line Dance: A Dialogical Spin .................................................156

Synopsis and Look Ahead ....................................................................................................159

CHAPTER 7: ON DIALOGICS ..................................................................................................162

Postmodern Uncertainties about Method ..........................................................................163

Mikhail Bakhtin and Dialogics .............................................................................................165

Dialogical Method ..............................................................................................................168

Knowledge and Method ................................................................................................175

Dialog as Method ..........................................................................................................177

Synopsis and Look Ahead ....................................................................................................178

PART FOUR: THE INQUIRY ...................................................................................................181

CHAPTER 8: THE WRITER DIALOGS ....................................................................................182

Weaving the Written Dialogs ..............................................................................................182

Sheila Bender ......................................................................................................................183

Susan Bono ..........................................................................................................................208

Diane Leon‐Ferdico .............................................................................................................232

Brian Doyle ..........................................................................................................................260

Don Edgers ..........................................................................................................................277

Mridu Khullar ......................................................................................................................298

Charles Markee ...................................................................................................................306

Sue William Silverman .........................................................................................................329

Jack Swenson ......................................................................................................................355

Summary and Look Ahead ..................................................................................................373

CHAPTER 9: RESPONSIVE DISCUSSION OF THEMES ......................................................374

Chapter Organization ..........................................................................................................374

Sheila Bender ......................................................................................................................375

Writing from Within ......................................................................................................376

Writing Essential and Universal Truths ........................................................................378

Transferability of Truth through Representation ...........................................................379

Writing from Dialog ......................................................................................................380

Comments ......................................................................................................................381

Susan Bono ..........................................................................................................................382


Writing Essential and Universal Truths ........................................................................385



Comments ......................................................................................................................390

Diane Leon‐Ferdico .............................................................................................................390


Writing from Essential and Universal Truth .................................................................393



Comments ......................................................................................................................397

Brian Doyle ..........................................................................................................................398





Comments ......................................................................................................................402

Don Edgers ..........................................................................................................................403





Comments ......................................................................................................................407

Mridu Khullar ......................................................................................................................408




Comments ......................................................................................................................410

Charles Markee ...................................................................................................................411





Comments ......................................................................................................................415

Sue William Silverman .........................................................................................................417





Comments ......................................................................................................................426

Jack Swenson ......................................................................................................................426





Comments ......................................................................................................................431

Summation and Look Ahead ..............................................................................................432

CHAPTER 10: REFLECTIONS & REGRETS ...........................................................................434

(THINGS LEARNED ALONG THE WAY) ..............................................................................434

Reflections ...........................................................................................................................435

Practical Methodological Issues and Limitations ..........................................................435

Dialogical Intentions .....................................................................................................437The

Scholar/Practitioner Divide ....................................................................................440

Epistemological & Methodological Difficulties ...........................................................442

So, what does it all mean? .............................................................................................445

Regrets ................................................................................................................................447

―Pushing too hard‖ as a par cipant. ..............................................................................447

Monological Finalization ...............................................................................................448

Polyvocality and heteroglossia ......................................................................................449 A

―not‐knowing‖ stance ................................................................................................450

Summation and Look Ahead ...............................................................................................451

CHAPTER 11: PARTING WORDS ...........................................................................................452

Dead Man Writing ...............................................................................................................453

Luminous Exceptions to the Encapsulated Experience .......................................................454

Being Written While Writing ...............................................................................................455

Writing as a Transformative Experience .............................................................................456

What Now? .........................................................................................................................462

APPENDIX A: INFORMED CONSENT FORM .......................................................................465

APPENDIX B: INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH .........................................................470

APPENDIX D: INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGS ............................................................475

APPENDIX E: INTERVIEW BY SHEILA BENDER ..............................................................477

LIST OF REFERENCES .............................................................................................................501

ENDNOTES ...............................................................................................................................519