Articles

‘I found what I had lost: myself’. Writing as a form of self-care in times of crisis

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.11.38626

Keywords:

experience, narrative, self-care, trajectory, writing

Abstract

This essay is situated within the broad area of autoethnography, particularly referring to the idea of ‘writing about writing’, which is grounded in the reflection of the process of writing and the contexts in which that writing occur. The author employs a personal narrative to reflect on the situation that she had found herself in during the Covid-19 pandemic and which can best be defined by the concept of trajectory. It is a biographical situation marked with chaos and disintegration, evoking identity changes. As a result, the trajectory set new directions for the course of the biography. In the discussion on the schemes of dealing with the trajectory of suffering, author refers to Paul Ricoeur’s narrative concept, in particular the refiguration phase, as a stage of redefining one’s own life situation. Finally, author comes to the conclusion that the process of writing this essay can be viewed as a form of self-care, which Audre Lorde defined as self-preservation.

Author Biography

Aneta Ostaszewska, University of Warsaw

Aneta Ostaszewska (Dr. habil.) is a sociologist and academic teacher working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on women’s issues, feminism, auto/biography and culture. She is a Director of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research at the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Resocialisation at the University of Warsaw. She is an author of many publications, incl. a book devoted to bell hooks and her autobiography in the context of empowerment (Polish title: Proces kształtowania kobiecej podmiotowości. Pedagogiczne studium samorozwoju bell hooks, 2018).

Published

2022-04-21

Issue

Vol. 11 (2022): EJLW

Section

Articles

Copyright (c) 2022 Aneta Ostaszewska

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