This project began at the intersection of several conversations: Recently Jay Prosser (2005) wrote a palinode
of his analysis of Del Lagrace's photograph of the genitals of a
female-to-male transsexual. Recanting his original reading of the
photograph as a referent directly linked to "male," Prosser re-read the
photograph, suggesting "the referent [is] unsuturable with the
signifier," in other words concluding that
"transsexuality…is…irreconcilable …within gender
representation" (p. 176). This idea of a palinode caught my
attention. How could I re-read my data to realize what was lost
in the original, to find that which exceeded the bounds of
signification so I might further glimpse the real (Prosser,
2005)? Concurrently, I was reading Pink's (2004) call to use
hypertext as a means to critically reflect on the way arguments are
constructed, and MacDougall's (2006) discussion on how the
mode of representation influences meaning. Swimming with these
thoughts, I began to use writing in and through Storyspace, a self publishing hypertext program, as a method
of inquiry (Richardson & St. Pierre, 2005) to write this palinode.
I began by uploading data and theory bits. Using Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) notion
of a rhizome, I constructed hyperlinks, connecting this to
that, word to lengthy review, photograph to caption, title to
theory. Some of these connections were made with practical
intention, for example the linking of definition to concept.
Others were produced more on a whim, "What would happen if...".
Many times, it was through this whimsical play that meaning
emerged for me. This is seen in the connecting of the title to
its grounding theory and the resultant first palinode. I
soon found, however, that Storyspace did not give me functions I
desired. First of all, it was aesthetically unpleasing.
Second, it did not have the typesetting capacity I required to
radically alter the linear function of text in the rhizonarrative (Kaufmann, 2007).
Consequently, I sought out other options and came across Nvu.
After recreating each page into HTML, I continued in the
process discussed above. Each whimsical and intentional
connection was carried out in tandem with a re-reading of my work for
that which I had missed (Prosser, 2005) and how mode of representation was influencing meaning (McDougall, 2006). This re-reading, which was situational and subjective, emerged through my positionality and my theoretical perspective; it
was not a procedural, logical-deductive process, but an experience of
epiphanies. I reflected on the text and structures which ignited
these moments, some of which led to not and others which functioned to
produce the palinodes illustrated.
It is my hope that through reading
this text you will experience (more, less, differently) what I came to
understand.
Palinode