Open AccessComing in from the Margin: Research Practices, Representation and the Ordinary
Author(s) -
Karen Greiner
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2010.1337
Subject(s) - drama , sacrifice , sociology , neglect , aesthetics , altar , representation (politics) , gender studies , psychology , history , art , literature , art history , law , archaeology , psychiatry , politics , political science
This essay explores issues of marginality and representation in research, which emerged during life history interviews with Tammi, an "ordinary" woman living in Appalachia. I examine how my research practices, namely my thirst for drama and marginality, nearly silenced the preferred stories of the woman who shared her life with me. I contrast Tammi's unique yet quotidian accounts with streams of literature reflecting a tendency to neglect the commonplace by representing residents of Appalachia through tragic or heroic extremes. This essay pairs Tammi's stories with a reflection on what may have become of them had I followed my first impulse to sacrifice the ordinary at the altar of the marginal.