Abstract
This chapter presents part of an ongoing dialogue between a qualitative health
researcher working in Health Services Research (FR) and a poet and facilitator of
creative writing working in the fields of health and social care (GH). It highlights
the rich diversity of perspectives that can be disclosed when two people from
differing backgrounds come together to consider the legitimacy of poetic inquiry as
an academic paradigm.
The chapter examines the application of the arts-based method ‘ethnographic
poetic representation’ to Health Services Research studies and its relative underuse
in this field. A piece of poetics is provided as an exemplar of the method’s use,
derived from a study of Holocaust survivor testimonial that examined the relationship
between the extraordinary event, personal trauma and the pathway to good health
and wellbeing.
The piece underpins the ensuing dialogical examination of the method between the
two authors, whilst at the same time defends the ability of literary experimentation
techniques to grapple with complex social data. Working with both theoretical
perspectives and the poetic exemplar, the authors argue on behalf of the method as
well as indicating wider opportunities for re-presenting difficult, emotive narrative
through powerful, creative tools.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Poetic inquiry II – seeing, caring, understanding |
Subtitle of host publication | using poetry as and for inquiry |
Editors | Kathleen T. Galvin, Monica Prendergast |
Place of Publication | Rotterdam |
Publisher | Sense Publishers |
Pages | 211-226 |
Number of pages | 16 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789463003162 |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |