What exactly is an Autoethnography? What must one include in order to compose an Autoethnography? These are just a couple of the questions that have been running in and out of my mind over the past few weeks. For one of our blog entries in class, we had to find out what the definition of an Autoethnography was. In doing this I learned that many people have different interpretations of what it exactly is, however, they can all come to a consensus that it is based through life experiences. The big debate of this is whether it pertains to our conscious, our unconscious, or both. Our conscious would be what we have physically experienced through out our life. However, your unconscious is what some people consider having life experiences through their dreams.
In my blog entry I used this definition of Autoethnography because I thought it seemed helpful. Autoethnography is “an autobiographical genre of writing that displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural” (Anthropology). “Autoethnographers ask their readers to feel the truth of their stories and to become co participants, engaging the storyline morally, emotionally, aesthetically, and intellectually” (Anthropology).
After reading this definition and browsing through some others on the internet, it led me to one specific question. This is “What is I?” At the very beginning of the semester, Marlen handed out a paper to our class that was about this very question. It was a story about a man who continuously kept getting his body parts chopped off and then they would be replaced with another person’s body part. This went on for a good while until it didn’t seem like any of the man’s parts were actually his. However, despite the fact that none of his body parts were his, he never once doubted who he was. Deep down inside he knew all of the things that had made him who he was and he didn’t need to physically be himself to show that.
In my blog on “What is I?” I had said that I didn’t think there was a specific answer to this question and that this one simple word can mean so much. Rereading my blog I also realized that one of the statements I said actually pertained to the definition of what an autoethnography is. This was that “The concept of ‘I’ does not just deal with what your name may be or whose son or daughter you are. But instead it deals with your conscious and the actions you can control, along with your unconscious and the things that you are unable to control.” To explain this, I used the quote that the monk had stated in the story, “The ‘I’ is a composite of various elements and is only temporarily formed into one thing.”
Going back and examining this seemingly simplex question, I think I have finally came to a conclusion as to what it means to me. By incorporating all of my five senses together and what life experiences I have shared through these sense, will present a good explanation of who I am. The very first essay we were assigned to write was on the sense of taste.
The sense of taste is always something that has played a significant role in my life. With taste I have tried and experienced so many different things that I learned to like. In our blog entry on taste I chose to talk about the first time I experienced Pazooka. My dad has always been the one to get me to try something at least once in my life, so he is the one who introduced me to Pazooka while I was at Oregano’s in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“My dad told me that I had to try this dessert at a restaurant in Arizona called “Oregano’s.” So one time when I was out there, he took me to the restaurant where I got a “Big ol’ Ravioli” which was literally the size of my dinner plate. Next it was time for dessert! We ordered the “Pazooka” and the waiter brought it out in a small pizza pan. In it was warm, soft chocolate chip cookie dough that had come straight out of the oven. On top of the cookie dough was vanilla bean ice cream. I’m not kidding; this is probably the best dessert I have tried so far in my life. It sounds so simple but the taste of it is just phenomenal and it literally melts in your mouth.”
As far as the sense of taste goes, my bubba has probably played the biggest role in my life. She is without a doubt the best baker I have ever known. I chose her to write my taste essay on because she is the one who created the biggest impact on food for me. We had to write a narrative for our essay so when I first wrote it, I discussed about all of her hard work over the years and how truly incredible her baking skills and talent was. I also talked about how she no longer is able to bake because of suffering from a brain aneurysm a few years back. However, in my revision of this essay I ended up changing it completely and turning it into a children’s story. I still kept my bubba in it and used her as the main character of the story.
“Now who do you think the greatest cook in all of Andalasia was? Yes that’s right! It was Margie. This fairy god mother had a keen sense for cooking. She knew the kinds of foods to cook that would just make your mouth water. Pretty much any kind of tasteful, scrumptious little morsel you could think of, she made it. Margie was truly a remarkable woman and her love for cooking showed this.”
I also talked about myself in this essay and included some of my favorite dishes my bubba would make for me.
“Margie had one little granddaughter, Odette, that she spoiled rotten with her goodies. She would let Odette invite her friends over to eat before they had their magic spells and potion classes. Odette loved the fact that all of her friends were so jealous of her grandmother so she had no trouble bragging about it. One of her favorite things that her grandmother made for breakfast when her friends came over was her pancakes. She made incredible pancakes that Odette would literally eat stacks of! Odette also really enjoyed her scrambled eggs which came from Margie’s special chickens she raised and cared for herself.”
The second sense that we discussed was sight. In class Marlen had us compose a blog on a time when something we saw was different from reality. The time that came straight to my mind when I thought about this, was when my friends and I had went to Torrence. Torrence is an abandoned insane asylum that is located near Torrence hospital. This is definitely a time when something I saw was different from reality because I didn’t believe it was actually haunted until I went there and experienced it for myself. I had straight fear and adrenaline running through my veins the whole entire time we were there, with every noise or weird incident that had occurred.
“My one friend had a big spotlight that worked perfectly fine until we got so far into the building. It then shut off and stopped working until we got back outside again and it was fine. Some rooms were also a lot colder than others which I found really creepy. One of the weirdest things though, would have to be when we got home and looked at all of our pictures and videos. In the one video my friend took on her cell phone, you can actually see someone’s face for a split second. The voice of my friend also sounds nothing like him. It is some strange muffled voice where you can hear something say ‘“It’s cold.’”
