Browsing by Author "Clarke, Catherine"

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    Childhoods revisited : a study of narrative and identity in selected autobiographic graphic narratives
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2008-03) Clarke, Catherine; De Villiers, Karlien; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the manner in which creating autobiographic narratives can facilitate identity construction and deeper self-understanding. It approaches autobiography as a means of therapy and suggests that the assimilation, acceptance and reworking of one’s history – which speaking and writing about their past experiences offers individuals – can be therapeutic. This is an especially important concept in post-traditional societies, which frequently require that individuals draw their own plans and solutions in the face of significant personal transitions or shifts. Central to this study is the idea that the self is constituted in childhood: that childhood experiences influence the self in assuming a specific structure later in life, and that relationships with family members developed during childhood can impact either favourably or unfavourably on this outcome. Family restructuring as a by-product of marital dissolution as well as the distress divorce can cause children, are explored through visual narratives. Moreover, as a particular type of visual narrative, selected autobiographic comic strips are analysed according to their potential to reflect this childhood condition. In addition, use and the effect of narrative and the potential for these narratives to reveal identity issues and uncertainties is also considered. Of significance to the study is the intrinsic connection between narrative and identity, and narrative identity is propounded as the product of this relationship. Narrative is asserted as being not only an appropriate form for the expression of identity, but a constituent of and condition for its construction too.