Autobiogenography: Genomes and Life Writing

Witnessing the Genetic Self: How Non-Specialists use Reveal Videos to Approach Genetics and Race Through Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Ancestry Testing

“…Test-takers have purchased the information about their biology from various companies and then used them to help inform their own identities. In opposition to the essentialist language used by DTC genetic testing companies, test-takers approach the ancestry findings with caution and a critical eye, adopting some, rejecting others, and refashioning their identities in response, thus acting as autobiogenographers and autobiologists because they are using their own biochemistry to fashion and refashion their identities (Nayar, 2016(Nayar, & 2017Nordgren & Juengst, 2009). Rather than approaching their genetic information as information, they approach it as a tool used for grappling with their own identities (Postan, 2016).…”

“…From Kavoori (2015), Lange (2008), and Vonderau (2016) I gained a deeper understanding of YouTube as a digital platform, pairing nicely with Couldry (2008), who explained that digital narratives (that is, narratives in a digital form) have patterns and logics consistent with the digital platform they are upon, which suggests that these videos should exhibit some commonalities. This leads into Gubrium and Holstein (1995;1998), who identify multiple common components to narratives, which are supported by Nayar (2016), Oikkonen (2013), andO'Riordan's (2011) understanding of genetic testing offering distinct opportunities for narrative construction, thus bridging the path from the Reveal genre into the genre of the Reveal as part of a larger narrative.…”

“…Harris, Kelly, and Wyatt specifically focused on those videos in which people reacted to their genetic health test results, rather than ancestry, using a language around these amateur videographers as "patients-in-waiting" creating their own "autobiologies" (2014, p. 73; 2016, p. 50). With autobiologies defined as texts that engage with one's biochemical body, and as a version of what Nayar calls an autobiogenography, which is simply "the discovery of the self's origins in genetic data," we can assert that not only are Harris, Kelly and Wyatt's studied 23andMe customers autobiologists and autobiogenographers but perhaps those engaging with their genetic ancestry are as well (Nayar, 2016;Nayar, 2017, p. 217).…”