Introduction

[Elspeth Kempe]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the world of drifting doctoral theses! Have had the same problem
myself.

If you're looking at your interviews through a discourse/literary
theory/authorial intention lens, have you looked at any of Bakhtin's
writing? "The Dialogic Imagination" and "Speech Genres and Other Late
Essays" are two that I've found useful.

You most probably won't thank me for the recommendation, for ages I used him
as an antidote to insomnia; ten minutes with Bakhtin at bedtime and you're
out like a light!

The day I suddenly realised I could actually understand him *and* stay awake
I was wild with excitement. What pathetic lives we doctoral students lead.

Good luck

Elspeth Kempe
Dept Applied Linguistics
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
South Africa
elspeth at kempe.net

> -----Original Message-----
> From: TheDiscourseStudiesList [mailto:DISCOURS at listserv.linguistlist.org]
> On Behalf Of Michael Arfken
> Sent: 31 October 2005 08:45 AM
> To: DISCOURS at listserv.linguistlist.org
> Subject: Introduction
> 
> Hi Everyone!
> 
> I just joined the list and I wanted to introduce myself.
> 
> I am doctoral student in Experimental Psychology at the University of
> Tennessee. Although my training is in phenomenological psychology I have
> begun to move in the direction of practice and discourse. I began my
> dissertation research using open-ended interviews where I asked people to,
> "tell me about some times when politics stood out to you." From there, my
> intention was to do a strict phenomenological study. During my research, I
> started to drift away from Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and
> towards Heidegger's hermeneutics. This led me to Foucault, discourse,
> discursive psychology etc. I have also studied some literary theory,
> especially in the context of hermeneutics which has led to my interest in
> treating interviews as literature (i.e. playing with issues such a
> authorial
> intention, neopragmatism, etc.)
> 
> I'm new to all of this so it will probably be a while before I fire off a
> question. I just don't know what to ask yet!
> 
> Best,
> 
> Mike
> 
> Michael Arfken
> Center For Applied Phenomenological Research
> Department of Psychology
> The University of Tennessee
> http://phenomenology.utk.edu/
> e-mail: marfken at utk.edu