Flesh and the Text: Poststructural Theory and Writing Research

This book is an analysis and practice of writing otherwise in academia. It takes off from Barthes' claim that 'Science will become literature' into a labyrinth of writing in different contexts and genres. In local and specific writing contexts, the author contrasts (social) scientific analytical writing with poetic, dramatic and autoethnographic writing to begin to generate theories about how different types of writing might work differently to construct different knowledges. Data from collective biography projects is re-presented as poetry and as a theatre script. Sections of 'creative' or 'literary' writing are interspersed with theoretical and methodological analysis. The research methodologies of collective biography and autoethnography are interrogated in the light of poststructural theories on language. This is a risky journey into transgressive writing research where linear narratives of research are disrupted via a series of detours into writing towards a conclusion that stresses the (im)possibilities of conclusions.