Living truth: a reading in social and sociological hermeneutics

Download files
Access & Terms of Use
open access
Copyright: Barnwell, Ashley
Altmetric
Abstract
In social theory, as in everyday life, we are faced with the question of how to account for the seemingly unaccountable complexity of lives that are not all of one piece with methods that are similarly dissonant. Drawing attention to such a representational challenge, this thesis explores the ethical, sociological, and political dimensions of both social and academic truth-telling and verification practices. Focusing on questions of method, and the recent turn from critique to affect theory specifically, this study parses out underlying questions about how we determine what will and will not qualify as a complex field, a proper genre, or an affective impulse; as well as how these decisions work to shape and produce particular realities. To foreground the living contestation that animates questions of truth, the thesis opens with a case study about veteran imposture, the Stolen Valour Act, and public debates about who has the right to claim particular life stories. Autobiography hoaxes are routinely read as a breach of the line between fact and fiction, however, as this chapter illustrates, they also draw out underlying social conflicts about authorship and propriety and alert us to the dynamism of seemingly rigid genre laws. Building on this investigation into social authorship, chapter two tracks the ongoing disciplinary irresolution in the sociology of literature, and discovers that scholarly projects seeking to address the ideological rift between felt and factual truths are similarly unsure about what constitutes authentic representation. Dilating upon this intriguing parallel, the final three chapters offer a sustained analysis of the affective turn’s theoretical and methodological directives, which propose that in order to tease out the nuances of experience we must discard methods of close reading, judgement, and truth-seeking, to take up new, affect-oriented, experimental practices. Together, these chapters examine whether such a shift can alleviate critical exclusion, or if it continues to circumscribe which methods can hold intellectual and practical value. Through a series of close readings, this thesis reframes recent methodological manifestos not as appeals for newness, or hope for solutions, but as a continuation of debates about discipline, methodology, ethics, and the nature of veracity.
Persistent link to this record
Link to Publisher Version
Link to Open Access Version
Additional Link
Author(s)
Barnwell, Ashley
Supervisor(s)
Kirby, Vicki
Creator(s)
Editor(s)
Translator(s)
Curator(s)
Designer(s)
Arranger(s)
Composer(s)
Recordist(s)
Conference Proceedings Editor(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Corporate/Industry Contributor(s)
Publication Year
2014
Resource Type
Thesis
Degree Type
PhD Doctorate
Files
download public version.pdf 1.68 MB Adobe Portable Document Format
Related dataset(s)