Reconstructing Maritime Women – A Discursive
Understanding
Author(s)
H. Hagmark-Cooper
Abstract
This paper will show how prevailing discourses in society influence the way in
which life stories are told. The empirical foundation of the paper is a body of
qualitative oral and written testimonies of seventy-five seafarers’ wives from the
Åland Isles, born between 1912 and 1969 and divided into three groups, so as to
represent different generations of women. In my interpretation of the testimonies
I have used discourse analysis and social constructionism. The examination of
the relationship between reconstruction and discourse will make visible not only
the extent to which social ideals feed into subjective identity, but also how
common discourses are constructed and sustained through individual narratives.
Furthermore, by looking at how the informants reconstructed their subjective
experiences, we will learn how life story narratives are affected by the discourses
available to the narrator, both at the time when events were experienced and
when they were related. The informants’ experiences as seafarers’ wives will be
set against the popular and established ideas of what being a maritime woman
entails.
Keywords: maritime women, family life, discourse analysis, seafarers’ wives.
1 Introduction
Personal accounts draw upon existing discourses available in society, and these
discourses, in turn, are influenced and maintained by subjective experiences.
Some informants will create their experiences so as to fit the prevailing images
of a seafarer’s wife’s attitudes and characteristics, whereas others will seek to
distance themselves from the stereotype. Awareness of what the principal
discourses communicate about seafarers’ wives in Åland is imperative, since
these debates are the frame of reference for the informants’ reconstructions of
Keywords
maritime women, family life, discourse analysis, seafarers’ wives.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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