Autobiographical Method Research Articles

No More Farewells: An Interview with Jeanne and John Houston

Jeanne and James Houston discuss with Tony Friedson the genesis of Farewell to Manzanar —their account of Jeanne's adolescence under internment; the personal and political implications of that internment; their autobiographical methods; and the work which grew from this their best-known collaboration.

‘Whole, Bright, Deep with Understanding’: Issues in Qualitative Research and Autobiographical Method

‘Whole, Bright, Deep with Understanding’: Issues in Qualitative Research and Autobiographical Method

Autobiographical Methods Verfahren und Möglichkeiten

Social and cultural conditions and processes can be fully understood only if their subjective dimension is adequately taken into consideration by the researcher. Autobiographical methods can contribute to the solving of such problems. The author describes various kinds of autobiographical documents and discusses their source value, giving orally related life histories preference over written sources. He holds that in empirical research folklore should focus on everyday cultural behavior and usages, and that telling stories out of one's own life belongs to the most frequent subjects of everyday narrating. The particularities of recording oral life histories are systematically analysed. Although the recording situation is artificially established, the researcher should still attempt to simulate the everyday behavior of his informants. Finally, the article discusses the evaluation and analysis of extensive life historical data of several informants in view of a specific problem.

Emocje w autobiografii Władka. Metoda autobiograficzna Thomasa i Znanieckiego na tle przykładu współczesnej analizy Fritza Schützego

The proposed study is an attempt to address the issue of emotions in the context of the biographical analysis proposed by W.I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki. Due to the canonical character of the work and its theoretical significance, a comparative analysis with the example of Fritz Schütze’s biographical analysis was applied, recognizing that only against the background of the contemporary research approach will the value of Thomas and Znaniecki’s work be discernible. The research idea of the authors of the article was therefore, in a way, exploratory. The conclusions of the analysis allow us to describe the status of emotions in classical and contemporary analysis; on the other hand, to critically interpret the autobiographical text of Władek (Volume III of the Book), together with the analytical work carried out on this text by both authors. The text of the article refers to excerpts from works on emotions, but also reviews the literature on the subject, concerning the perception of emotions in American sociology from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and from the first half of the 20th century, which gives grounds for answering questions about the sources of understanding emotions in the contemporary sociological literature.
 Marek Nowak, Piotr Luczys, Emocje w autobiografii Władka. Metoda autobiograficzna Thomasa i Znanieckiego na tle przykładu współczesnej analizy Fritza Schützego [Emotions in Władek’s autobiography. Autobiographical method of Thomas and Znaniecki with the example of contemporary analysis by Fritz Schütze] edited by M. Nowak, „Człowiek i Społeczeństwo” vol. XLVII: „Chłop polski w Europie i Ameryce” po stu latach [Polish peasant in Europe and America after one hundred years], Poznań 2019, pp. 57–86, Adam Mickiewicz University. Faculty of Social Sciences Press. ISSN 0239-3271.

Et uænset egenhændigt vidnesbyrd om Grundtvigs ungdom

Et uænset egenhændigt vidnesbyrd om Grundtvigs ungdom

An analytical study of the social and speech adjustment of good and poor speakers by means of the autobiographic method∗

An analytical study of the social and speech adjustment of good and poor speakers by means of the autobiographic method∗