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Ml 48106-1346 USA 3l3.'761-4700 800.521-0600 ARTS OF EXISTENCE: THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUBJECTIVITY IN OLDER WHITE SOUTHERN WOMEN DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University by Elizabeth Adams St.Pierre, A.B., M.S.L.S. ***** The Ohio State University 1995 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Maia Pank Mertz Patti Lather Laurel Richardson Advispr College of Education Anna Soter Department of Educational Studies: Humanities, Science, Technological and Vocational UMI Number: 9544695 Copyright 1995 by St Pierre, Elizabeth Adams All rights reserved. DMI Microform 9544695 Copyright 1995, by ÜMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, HI 48103 Copyright by Elizabeth Adams St.Pierre 1995 For Rowena Hicks Adams Lifelong Co-Researcher, In Whose Love I Live 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express sincere appreciation to my adviser. Dr. Maia Pank Mertz and to the other members of my advisory committee, Drs. Patti Lather, Laurel Richardson, and Anna Soter for their support, inspiration, and good will. I have had many productive and spirited discussions about the nature and purpose of inquiry with my fellow doctoral students, and I am grateful for their time and energy. During our marriage, my husband. Professor George R. St.Pierre, has exemplified the courage, brilliance, and generosity of spirit in both his personal and academic encounters to which I aspire. Our early conversations about the nature of this study as well as his later explanation of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics significantly influenced its direction. I am also indebted to my co-researchers, Elizabeth H. Brummitt and Marguerite L. Stem, who graciously serve as on-site experts in this continuing investigation. During the writing of this document, I have often found myself lingering on the aesthetics of existence practiced by a dear friend in Essex County, Blanche S. Montague. Finally, 1 am most grateful to the women of Essex County whose ethical practices of freedom have guided this study since its inception. Ill VITA 1969 A. B., East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 1969-1976 High School English Teacher 1977 M.S.L.S., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1979 - 1991 Librarian FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Education Studies in English Education, feminist poststructural inquiry, critical theory, and qualitative research methodology. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................ üi VITA ..................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER PAGE I. ORIGINS; SELF AND TEXTUAL CONSTRUCTIONS 1 Introduction..................................................................................... 1 Emplotment..................................................................................... 4 Backgrounds and O rigins ............................................................ 8 II. CITATIONALITY: A PERFORMANCE OF POWER................ 16 Introduction..................................................................................... 16 The Poststructural Critique......................................................... 17 Introduction.............................................................................. 17 Language Without Presence: Signs Sous Rature 29 Discourse, Leading to Subjects............................................ 35 The Self, Sous Rature and Reconfigured — The Subject. 39 Care of the Self: Another Subject....................................... 49 Introduction................................................................ 49 Rethinking the Enlightenment................................ 51 Morality ....................................................................... 57 Ethics: Care of the S e lf............................................ 60 Arts of Existence....................................................... 62 Transformation of Care of the S e lf....................... 67 Posthumanist Possibilities....................................... 70 Responses to Care of the S e lf................................... 74 Knowledge: Finitude into Strategy..................................... 78 Responses to Poststructuralism............................................ 83 Summary ................................................................................... 93 The Case at Hand ............................................................................ 94 Introduction.............................................................................. 94 Research about Older W omen.............................................. 95 Research about Southern Women....................................... 98 Summary ......................................................................................... 105 III. METHODOLOGY IN THE FO LD...................................................... 107 Fieldwork: A Visit to Essex County........................................... 107 Introduction..................................................................................... 113 Research Design .............................................................................. 115 O verview ..................................................................................... 115 Introduction................................................................................. 120 Research Questions................................................................... 123 Site of Research.......................................................................... 123 Introduction................................................................... 123 The Land ....................................................................... 125 Before the Civil War................................................... 129 After the Civil W ar ..................................................... 132 Education in Essex County........................................ 137 Essex County Today................................................... 141 Participants, Entry, and Time Frame ................................... 142 Entry .............................................................................. 142 Co-Researchers............................................................ 143 Selection....................................................................... 144 Description of Participants........................................ 147 Methodology in Transition..................................................... 151 Introduction................................................................... 151 Ethnography ................................................................. 151 Description and Problems............................ 151 Space and Place: Social Relations 156 The Prior Ethnography................................. 164 Interviews..................................................................... 167 Description and Problems............................ 167 Oral History ................................................... 171 W riting.......................................................................... 175 In the F ield................................................................... 183 Methods are E asy .......................................... 183 Folding is Hard.............................................. 199 Summary ....................................................................... 210 Interpretation of D ata ..................................................................... 211 Problems..................................................................................... 211 Discussion................................................................................... 213 Summary ..................................................................................... 220 Validity