Impressions of grandmother: An autoethnographic portrait
Abstract
Through the use of a layered account format, the author sketches, through a juxtapositioning of vignettes and impressions, an autoethnographic portrait of her grandmother. Derrida's concepts such as the "mystic writing pad," "differance," and "sous rature" serve as frames through which to gaze at the emergent nature of identity formation across time. Various aspects of the author's grandmother's character, positive, negative, and shades of gray, are illustrated through descriptions of drawing. Through reflexivity, she will show how some of the impressions her grandmother left with her manifest in her. Derrida's concepts, the layered account format, and drawing, serve individually as viewfinders that offer snapshots of her grandmother and her but, taken together, build up traces and impressions that merge and blend into an illustration of identity as a process and thus an autoethnographic portrait. © 2005 Sage Publications.
Publication Title
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
Recommended Citation
Rambo, C. (2005). Impressions of grandmother: An autoethnographic portrait. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 34 (5), 560-585. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241605279079
