Volume 6, Number 1, 2021 Fiction as Research – Writing Beyond the Boundary Lines

EN:

In this theoretical musing, I propose a methodological and normative framework for including fiction writing in interdisciplinary research. Reviewing some traditional literary and rhetorical analyses alongside social theory, I reflect on ways of reading and citing, which inform our own fiction writing practices. In the first section, I consider how to read the text seriously as the starting point of sharing literary social worlds, followed by a vignette of critiquing fiction through citations to subvert dominant narratives. I end with an aspirational call for academics to consider fiction as a space where inclusivity and narrativizing injustice must be centered.

EN:

What possibilities does reading anti-colonial and counternarrative fiction have? By “plugging in” Coloma’s constitutive subjectivities, Anzaldúa’s new consciousness, and Sumara’s embodied action, I share the possibilities with the explanation of an anti-colonial book club. Part of a larger research project conducted with a feminist Deleuzian methodology, this paper focuses on one of the “hot spots” that arose during the reading processes of two participants in the book club. Through their self-reflection during their reading processes, the counternarrative and anti-colonial fiction gave the women a different kind of language which allowed them to build a stronger trust in themselves, their subject positions, and their experiences of marginalization outside of a white settler colonial discursive lens. This building of trust by creating a different kind of language to explain their subject positions and experiences of marginalization created a new consciousness that allowed them to continue subverting simplified white settler colonial understandings of who they are.

EN:

In this paper I explore the scholarly potential of a narrative futuring methodology for writing-as-becoming within the context of the future imaginary. Through an experimental bricolage of future fiction, theoretical exploration, and personal essay, I attempt to perform a methodology that troubles temporal boundaries and allows me to write my way into the new. I situate this exploratory work within a rich heteroglossia of creative futures and speculative writing that exists both in and outside the academy and informs my narrative futuring praxis. New materialism and post humanism provide the onto-ethico-epistem-ologies for this creative inquiry in which I attempt to entangle myself with rational possibility, absurd potentiality, and poetic virtuality. The future narrative here is neither predictive nor prophetic, but rather is taken up as a mechanism for doing futures-oriented theory; this is a writing-as-reaching into thick assemblages of the not-yet and storying the productive partiality of narrative (non)representation.

EN:

On the 23rd of January 2020, a radio talk show of the future, 20:30 Bruxsels Talks, took place in Brussels. With guests and artists from the year 2030, it discussed how the transition to a climate-proof city had happened since 2019. In this article, we present and frame the development of the show and provide insight into the participative creation process. The radio show exemplifies (a) how future fiction can be used as a tool to evoke change and (b) how the participatory development of futurist fiction can be used as a method to trigger imagination and conversation on what citizens want for our cities. We argue that there is an opportunity for researchers to explore fiction as a method, as a format and as a space. Foresight practitioners who want to create engaging stories may find inspiration in the body of knowledge of arts-based research and the arts.

EN:

There is a gap in the literature regarding postsecondary opportunities for incarcerated youth. Research and curriculum design are rarely available for the purpose of improving juvenile postsecondary correctional education thereby not improving recidivism rates of formerly incarcerated students. The pilot program in this study attempted to provide a comprehensive university program for long-term incarcerated juveniles to get them on track to obtain a bachelor’s degree. This study addressed the academic experiences, including the School to Prison Pipeline and the academic experience to provide information, justifying the importance of creating postsecondary academic opportunities for incarcerated juveniles. Then, the study analyzed interviews with recently released students of the program to give insight to correctional education experiences vis-à-vis artistic representations, in this case, short fiction. This article presents fictive artistic representations that give a closer look at the secondary and postsecondary educational experiences of two of the cohort participants.

EN:

Storytelling, a tenet of Critical Race Theory, offers a distinct approach for researchers engaging in narrative inquiry. This article models a fiction as research approach for creating a literature synthesis as a pedagogical strategy for teacher educators and pre-service teachers. The white palette refers to a painting palette, a blank slate or canvas, often considered neutral ground. Whiteness, however, is not neutral and this one-act conversation centers on examining whiteness as it impacts my role as a white teacher educator. The production, players, and script developed out of salient literature inclusive of Critical Race Theory, Art Education, and Critical Whiteness Studies. I am both author and a participant in this story. In this capacity, I disclose the impacts of the literature on my white teacher educator identity and reveal how I created arts-based data artifacts to evidence the overall story.

EN:

In this article, the narrator of the story immerses herself in the interiority of a character depicted in a Cindy Sherman portrait on an art gallery wall. The narrator invites the character out of the photograph and immerses her in the pandemic-stricken city outside. In this way, the author engages with contemporary visual art while composing fictional text as literary art. Her encounter with the photograph becomes an aesthetic visual and literary investigation of art, text, and characterization set against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 crisis.

EN:

On the 23rd of January 2020, a radio talk show of the future, 20:30 Bruxsels Talks, took place in Brussels. With fictional guests and artists from the year 2030, it discussed how the transition to a climate-proof city had happened since 2019. The body of this article is the script of this fiction piece, produced by BrusselAVenir and BNA-BBOT. In the introduction we explain the relationship between the field of futures studies and fiction, we frame 20:30 Bruxsels Talks within futures studies, and highlight the potential of fiction for knowledge creation and dissemination. By publishing the script, we hope to inspire researchers, changemakers and artists to explore fiction as a method, as a format and as a space, to trigger conversation and imagination, and engage citizens to take up a role in shaping the cities they live in.

EN:

Women’s voices have historically been silenced in a vast array of contexts. Ethical incongruities exist between theoretical perspectives regarding right action for protection of women’s dignity and the tangible dilemma presented by systemic silencing. A fictive imagination found in the arts – and literature in particular – often plays a role in bridging that ethical gap between theory and practice. Using my arts-based approach of poet(h)ic inquiry (Duff, 2016a), I portray the symbolic power of women’s voices, fictionality, and textual polyvocality in a research-based play. Poet(h)ic inquiry is a method for ethical reflection incorporating spiritual and poetic-aesthetic values: a pedagogical space of inquiry within a non-fixed site of teaching, life-long learning, creativity, and knowing, located at the confluence of the creative writing process (in the context of fiction as research), ethics, and spirit. In “Story about Story. Toronto 2001,” I inquire poet(h)ically, in a speculative fictional tale about a woman’s journey with her baby, using research journal data and “freefall writing” notes as springboard for a “fictive leap” (Mitchell, 1977). Through the fictive writing process, knowledge is generated with respect to themes of isolation and connection towards re-finding the lost self’s language. Voices heard and unheard, pinpoint an ethic of meaning towards transcending silence, suffering, and colonial injustices. My story evokes ironies and eco-ethical queries within wildlife research, as well as questions evoked by the sensory overload of urban commerce, and an unspoken class system. I include reflections on fictionality, literature, and redemption.

EN:

In this article I share and discuss a poetic work of experimental sociological crime fiction titled “You Will Have Your Day in Court” (in Crockett Thomas, 2020c). In it I reimagine the “true crime” story of “King Con” Paul Bint, who for a period in 2009 successfully impersonated Keir Starmer, the then Director of Public Prosecutions. I first introduce my collaborative approach to writing sociological crime fiction, connections to poststructuralist philosophy and conceptualisation of research as a process of translation. After sharing the piece, I discuss thematic aspects of the work, such as the popular fascination of fraud, desire for explanations for criminal acts, and the narrative constraints placed on people who have experienced criminalisation. I also consider stylistic elements including use of narrative voice, characterisation, and narrative structure. I hope that this article is of interest to scholars aiming to marry poststructuralist thought with an experimental approach to writing sociological fiction.

EN:

Leading methodologist and arts-based researcher, Patricia Leavy, pioneered the method of social fiction, fiction-based research, or fiction as a research practice. Her latest release, Candy Floss Collection, is a set of three previously published novels, which together form installation art. This definitive and beautifully rendered work is important for several reasons. First, it demonstrates the power of fiction as a research method. Second, it is a beautiful piece of art. Third, it centres on powerful content, telling important and often invisible stories about women’s lives, aspirations, relationships, and daily struggles. Finally, this collection is a well-crafted piece of public scholarship that is imminently accessible to audiences inside and outside of academia. Overall, Candy Floss Collection is a triumphant piece of art, an exemplar of fiction as research, a highly accessible piece of public scholarship, and an engaging read. This is a significant and even game-changing work and ought to be recognized as such.

EN:

J. E. Sumerau’s latest fiction novel Palmetto Rose tells the story of Kid, a bi+, gender fluid twenty-something, living with grief for their romantic partner, alongside their chosen family of LGBTQIA+ friends. This review looks at how Sumerau’s writing presents complex concepts, research, and lived experience for an academic and wider audience.

EN:

In this article, I review the social fiction novel, Into the Sea, by Ash Watson, and discuss the ways in which Watson uses fiction as sociological theory.