The first year: an autoethnography of the Troubling Violence Performance Project

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] I am a writer, ethnographer (participant-observer of context), actor, and member of The Troubling Violence Performance Project under the direction of Drs. M. Heather Carver and Elaine Lawless. In this social activist performance troupe, the members of the troupe perform personal narratives and monologues of people who have endured and attempted to escape violence in a relationship; after each performance we discuss issues of violence with the audience in order to raise consciousness about this taboo subject and assist in social and political change. I conduct an autoethnography of my experiences in The Troubling Violence Performance Project to explore the multiple selves as feminist, activist, writer, and actor. Through the course of the yearlong autoethnographic study, I examine the following research question: What does an autoethnography; written by a member of an activist performance troupe, add to the understanding of performance and ethnography?