Reading and Writing Our Own Stories: The Alternative Reading Group

Abstract

Since women are the primary participants in most reading groups in Taiwan, this research experiments with the use of women's personal narratives in one such group. Reading of ordinary women's personal narratives encourages women to reflect on their own lives and then write out their own life stories. Further, with the sense of community that this reading and writing generates, women may come to a better recognition of their own value. This group, comprising ten middle-aged women, held two-hour meetings once a week for twenty weeks. In the reading phase, the participants read 7 publications of women's personal narratives, which came in various forms such as letters, diaries, autobiographies, oral testimonies, and biographies. In the writing phase, the participants wrote their life stories, dwelling on themes of family, education, women and the body, the family-in-law, care-giving, appearance, and miscellany. This exercise led to three kinds of results. First, the reading of ordinary women's personal narratives introduced participants with the form and content of writing life stories. Then, the writing of their own life stories enabled the women participants to re-evaluate their past. Third, with the reading, writing, and group sharing, a collection of writing or what I call a ‘community of narratives’ was formed. This helped the participants recognize the differences amongst them and at the same time to value their own experience.