Congress Paper Abstract

From postmodern sexual subjectivity to conscious evolution?: notes on the potential for identity development from narrative analysis

EDWARD DAVIES, MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY, UNITED KINGDOM

This presentation will report on the progress of my research into personal narratives of male-to-female transgender in a local community. The research involves an ethnographic investigation driven by a poststructural feminist research methodology and ethos. I will mention how the research will eventually address the possible effects of individual narratives on the social superstructure in the spirit of phenomenological research methodology.

I will discuss research participants’ narratives of transgender by highlighting observations gained from body language, linguistic styles and from language used. The environment and social groupings that the transgenderists are associated with will be connected to their personal discourse of sexual identity. Any textual expressions of transgender will be reviewed for their effect on the overall discourses.

I will introduce the idea of conscious evolution and that of ’manipulating the register of the real’ (Millot, 1983:15). I will consider whether my current research findings can be linked to these concepts.

Narratives of transgender ventured will be discussed to reveal contemporary notions of transgender in a particular geographical and historical location. Indications of the processes that can lead to evaluations of the self will be reported and a case for their connection to transgendered living, behaviour and identity will be made.

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