Resisting Cultural Narrative Entrapment in Autoethnography

'Resisting Cultural Narrative Entrapment in Autoethnography is an extraordinary book for several reasons, the common denominator of which is the horizon of the challenge. First, Alec Grant wisely and provocatively challenges the neoliberal Academy and all those who maintain its status quo, including what the author calls ‘the autoethnography-lite autoethnographers.’ These imitators of truly creative and meaningful thought in fact demonstrate both intellectual and moral weakness. The second dimension of the challenge concerns conventional conceptualizations. Grant masterfully exposes and tests ‘centripetal pressures’ by creating a new integrated vocabulary, which serves as a means of expressing invisible patterns of cultural behavior. In effect, he modifies philosophical, sociological, and other disciplinary concepts, admitting a Trojan horse, which forces the reader to question what seemed to him/her inviolable. The third area of the challenge concerns the authorial self, and comes down to generating the possibility of constantly questioning him-self by adopting a ‘trickster-carnivalesque’ position. It is thanks to the above that Grant is able to pursue a critical philosophical autoethnography, treated as an alternative to the ‘uncritical acceptance of the cultures’ that weakens our mental vigilance.'

Marcin Kafar, PhD,Assistant Professor, University of Lodz, Poland

'Should autoethnographers, and qualitative researchers in general, become complacent about how they conceptualise and go about their work, then the questions raised by Alec Grant in this book regarding the nature and impact of cultural narrative entrapment will challenge them to engage in a serious rethinking and reassessment. Certainly, the issues explored by Grant, and the way he courageously auto-critiques himself throughout the text, do not make for comfortable reading. They do, however, need to be addressed honestly and directly by those wishing to advance a social justice agenda by actively resisting this form of entrapment which can so often be oppressive, damaging, and life-limiting for both researchers and those whose lives they examine and write about.'

Andrew Sparkes, PhD, Professor, Leeds Beckett University, UK