| Chapter 1: | Autobiographical Self |
During my first 2 years in Canada, the Kobe earthquake occurred on January 17, 1995, and approximately 5,500 people lost their lives. I frantically called back to Japan to learn that my children were safe. Through all of these trials, I did not regret coming to Canada, because for the first time in my life, I could feel my existence again—the existence that I had lost in my marriage. However, these years were a constant struggle to find not only the way in which to fit myself into the Western academic world but also how to survive day-to-day life in a different culture.
I am interested in understanding our everyday lives, our languages, our metaphors, and known and unknown selves as they take shape and transform. In order to develop this book, I have turned to four different discourse genres. These are narrative, haiku, metaphor, and academic discourse.
Silkworms spin stories
Unraveled thread of the past
Tangled memories
Narrative
Writing narratives, I can write more easily, using words that come from my heart, and in doing so, my writing appears more natural. In narrative writing, I find it easier to cite theorists and their ideas and relate to them. In narrative writing, I feel the language is mine. Narrative discourse is about telling a story. In narrative discourse, I want to convey the ideas and experiences of a person in such a way that it invites the reader to reexperience and revisit the moments that constitute that person’s life. Narrative allows me to consider the often-assumed inconsequential events and practices as both central and influential in human experience (de Certeau, 1984, p. xi). My research is about three female Japanese students and myself as English language learners. By employing narrative, we can express our personal stories, both creatively and poetically. Finally, narrative discourse allows me to satisfy my need to explain my own past that is present and provide me with an expressive means to contextualize my motivation for doing this research.