Six Sirens and a Broken Oud

A Nomenclature for Critical Autoethnography in the Arena of Disciplinary Atomization

“…This development can be generally seen as autoethnography undergoing atomization and setting up its own boundaries, though porous, within the larger field of social science research. These boundaries become clearer a little later on this paper, when I more fully describe autoethnography, while providing examples from two representative EVAT-type autoethnographic papers: Schutt (2018) and Kien (2013). For now, though, allow me to remain in broad strokes, focusing on key moments and publications with respect to autoethnography establishing itself, drawing its circle in the sand.…”

“…To unpack this definition, I refer to two autoethnographic papers. The first paper, Schutt (2018), narrates the author’s visit to Tel Aviv where he met for the first time the extended family of his biological father, an Israeli, whom he had discovered several years previously. As mentioned above, autoethnographies such as Schutt’s (2018) paper are primarily story-oriented or dramaturgical and secondarily academic or scholarly.…”

“…The first paper, Schutt (2018), narrates the author’s visit to Tel Aviv where he met for the first time the extended family of his biological father, an Israeli, whom he had discovered several years previously. As mentioned above, autoethnographies such as Schutt’s (2018) paper are primarily story-oriented or dramaturgical and secondarily academic or scholarly. Before taking up the matter of the dependency of the scholarly on the dramaturgical and relating it to Schutt (2018), let us first ponder what is meant by “dramaturgical” and “scholarly.”…”

“…As mentioned above, autoethnographies such as Schutt’s (2018) paper are primarily story-oriented or dramaturgical and secondarily academic or scholarly. Before taking up the matter of the dependency of the scholarly on the dramaturgical and relating it to Schutt (2018), let us first ponder what is meant by “dramaturgical” and “scholarly.”…”

“…This academic writing in Schutt’s (2018) autoethnography appears in the third paragraph of the introduction and then throughout the penultimate section that serves as a theoretical-based and referenced “discussion” supported by Levant history, cinematic studies, and narrative theory. The rest of the paper, the bulk of the text, is the story or dramaturgical part as a type of travelogue.…”