I Unleashing the Power of the Hyphen: Application of Arts-Informed Inquiry and Psychoanalytic Perspectives in Autoethnography to Explore Cultural Hybridity by Tatiana Galetcaia A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Faculty of Education University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright©2017 by Tatiana Galetcaia II III Abstract In the postcolonial discourse of the social sciences, the term hybridity, most commonly used in the domains of engineering and agriculture, refers to “the [complex] interbreeding or mixing of different peoples, cultures and societies” (AlSayyd, 2001). The unique result in such multicultural societies comprising large population sub-groups, including asynchronystic waves of immigrants, is that individuals may experience identity conflict, questioning their membership in local social groups. They may painstakingly negotiate the locus or habitus (Bordieu, 1977; Mathieu, 2009) of their belonging. To explore and, in case of necessity, to better assist these individuals in coping with potential anxiety, inferiority complexes, and a sense of inadequacy within their social environments different from the loci of their cultural and linguistic origin, the proposed study uses psychoanalytic perspectives to 1) conceptualize hybridity in the context of culture, language, citizenship and power relations, 2) explore and expand the personal dimension of hybridity by applying the qualitative research that involves a cross-analysis of multiple case studies. More specifically, the data set includes biotexts, or autoethnographic narratives in para-poetic or visual formats composed by the individuals who study or work in Canada, and who consider themselves populations of dual or multiple cultural backgrounds. To make these narratives, the study participants collected their personal memos, reflective journals, and family stories. The assumption is that such pursuit helps the study populations to better recognize and voice the formative constituents of their cultural belonging and make sense of their citizenship loyalties. IV Table of Contents CHAPTER I: THE TOPIC EMERGES .......................................................................................... 1 Framing the Inquiry ..................................................................................................................... 1 Personal goals ...................................................................................................................... 4 Topic significance ............................................................................................................... 7 Negotiating the Research Entry ................................................................................................. 13 Why and how to talk about “Hybrids” .............................................................................. 13 Talking about the self: psychoanalytic perspectives ......................................................... 17 CHAPTER II: LOCATING TERMS AND ISSUES .................................................................... 22 On Terms ................................................................................................................................... 22 On Issues: The Nation State and Hybridity: Origins of [Dis]continuity ................................... 27 Visiting Sites of Identity: Location, Language, Culture ............................................................ 28 Defining symbolic: entry into collective memory ............................................................. 34 Performativity .................................................................................................................... 39 Unrepresentability ............................................................................................................. 42 Abjection and hybridity: is hybrid — the abjected incarnated .......................................... 42 CHAPTER III: DEFINING METHOD ......................................................................................... 45 Narrative Inquiry, Autoethnography and Arts-informed Inquiry .............................................. 45 Poetry and collage as methods used in autoethnography .................................................. 49 Biotexts: provocative cultural performances ..................................................................... 51 To Find the Other in Yourself: Application of Psychoanalytic Concepts in Autoethnography ....................................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER IV: THE STUDY DESIGN AND PROCESS ............................................................ 59 Research Procedures .................................................................................................................. 60 Research Instruments: Interviews and Research Tasks ............................................................. 61 Study Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 63 Implications for Educational Research and Practice ................................................................. 70 Study Participants: Collective Profile........................................................................................ 72 Tensions of representation: shaky grounds of witnessing the stories ............................... 77 Three categories of research [bio]texts: the levels of hybridity ........................................ 80 V Collages: telling and retelling the stories through symbol ................................................ 84 The interviews, visual images, and other field notes collection process: transcription and content analysis ..................................................................................... 88 Biotext composing process: visuality of generated and found poems .............................. 90 INTERLEAF ................................................................................................................................. 93 In Search of a Compromise ....................................................................................................... 93 The Murky Shades of My Multiple Self: How do We Own Hybridity? .................................. 100 Ismail: writing without exclamation marks ..................................................................... 112 Jas: my big Indian wedding or I know who I am because it is what I know .................. 118 Tanya: I am complete and yet I am all just pieces .......................................................... 122 Marianna: my job makes who I am ................................................................................. 128 Chelsey: a story of the denied identity ............................................................................ 134 Paul: home is a process that makes a space that lets me grow ........................................ 142 Satoru: home is the place you want to die ....................................................................... 144 CHAPTER V: LOOKING FOR THE MEANINGS OF THE STORIES ................................... 149 Wandering in the Mirror Reflections: Looking Far and Beyond ............................................ 149 Resisting, balancing in between and shifting back and forth from home to host spaces .............................................................................................................................. 151 Reinventing the self or the world? How do we perceive our own hybridity? ................. 172 Move in, move out: instrumental and circumstantial identity shifting ........................... 178 Does the word “Hybrid” bother you? .............................................................................. 184 Giving up on the Old on Finding the New: The Unsettling Facets of Abjection .................... 189 Gaps and Sounds of Silence: Resisting or Welcoming Hybridity ........................................... 193 The Shadowed identity: the “unnoticed” shifts in the sense of monolithic self .............. 194 Who Would You Cheer For? Conflicting and/or Agreeing Citizenship Loyalties ................. 199 Post-task Interviews: Reflections on Study Participation Experience..................................... 205 No, it was not a waste of time: participants’ reflections on importance to talk about hybrid .............................................................................................................................. 207 Did you discover anything about yourself? ..................................................................... 210 Mixed Spaces of Belonging: Summary of “Mirror” Reflections ............................................ 212 CHAPTER VI: VISUAL ANALYSIS: THE GAZE .................................................................. 217 Images Speak: Collages as Biotexts ........................................................................................ 217 How to analyze visual images? Methods and approaches ....................................................... 218 VI Procedure ................................................................................................................................. 222 Paul’s story .....................................................................................................................