Tami Spry provides a methodological introduction to the budding field of performative autoethnography. She intertwines three necessary elements comprising the process. First one must understand the body – navigating concepts of self, culture, language, class, race, gender, and physicality. The second task is to put that body on the page, assigning words for that body’s sociocultural experiences. Finally, this merger of body and paper is lifted up to the stage, crafting a persona as a method of personal inquiry. These three stages are simultaneous and interdependent, and only in cultivating all three does performance autoethnography begin to take shape. Replete with examples and exercises, this is an important introductory work for autoethnographers and performance artists alike.
Tami Spry provides a methodological introduction to the budding field of performative autoethnography including examplars and exercises for the novice.
Given her commitment to self-awareness and social justice and her ability to write in an encouraging, non-intimidating way, Spry equips students with the ability to see the ways in which they, personally, can change intolerable contexts and conditions. She equips students with the ability to question, analyze, and realize the ways in which they are implicated by cultural norms. And she equips students with the ability to navigate various medianot just writing but also performing, not just the body on the stage but also the body in everyday life.
Tony E. Adams, Northeastern Illinois University
Tami Spry is a Professor of Performance Studies in the Communication Studies Department at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, USA. She employs autoethnographic writing and performance as a critical method of inquiry into culture and communication teaching courses in beginning and advanced performative autoethnography, performance of literature, and collaborative writinlC0
![Body, Paper, Stage: Writing and Performing Autoethnography [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/1/0/5/2_6959707.jpg "Body, Paper, Stage: Writing and Performing Autoethnography [Hardcover]")