Desire,delight,regret: discovering Elizabeth Gibson

Abstract

My research into the life of a relative, poet and feminist Elizabeth Gibson, problematizes the boundaries and interrelationships between `academic' and `family' histories, narratives and identities. The desire for, and impossibilities of, control over the components of research and the stories that can be produced from it are discussed. The interrelated narratives of the research into Gibson, my experiences of researching my own family, and the structuring of the material into an academic paper, are analysed and combined to argue that the production and presentation of narratives is itself a form of methodology. The creative juxtaposition of narratives can generate a positive methodological anarchism that relinquishes control and challenges boundaries and hierarchies.