Dare We Say 'I'? Bringing the personal into scholarship

Summary:

Behar starts this article explaining that there is a student who wanted to do a project based on his grandfather's history. In other words, it would be a personla biography. She states that "the recent movement to recognize the autobiographical voice as a legitimate way of speaking in academe is gicing many of us permission to imagine a range of complex, daring, and compelling projects." Behar believes that it is good to use personal stories into our academic analysis because it allows for a better idea and evidence.

In the article, Behar states that several writings "pushed at the borders between autobiography and ethnography and created new ways of thinking about the world and how we know it in the process." There are wtitings that have been writen hundreds of years ago, and we use them and we believe that they are academic and scholarly. We trust and agree with this writing because we believe they are accurate just because they were written in a certain time period.

Behar also explains that it bothers some people stories into our academic analysis. They believe being "too personal" is super bad. But as she later explains, "personal evidence is evidence." Adding personal experience will have many knowledge toward the subjec. Not only that, but writing this way will touch the audience, and it will also allow for the audence to connect with the writing. Behar states that, "scholars have become impatient with cold-blooded analysis." When you're being personal when writing, then you show that you're trying hard and that you're writing with your heart, and the scholars can see that. Behar expects for the next generation to write in a personal view, and he expects for them to write better.

Synthesis:

I personally think that writing based on a personal experience is good, but to some extend. For example if you're writing a book about Mexican immigration, and you were part of it, then I believe it is fine to write about it from your point of view. But if you want to write the same book but didn't experience it yourself, then I don't think it's correct. I also believe that in order for one to write a personal bibliography, they must be knowledgable not only of your personal story, but also the historical issues and events that occured.

I also agree with the author when it's saying that it's sentimental. I'm doing a project for my Univ course. In this project, I'm supposed to track down the history of my family and ancestors, and then explain how I got here. I believe it's a little bit similar to the project that we were doing in this class about the assemblage trace. Don't get me wrong. It's not that I hated tracing a different object. But personally, I prefered doing the one for my Univ class. This is because it was something personal, and it really touched me. Not only that, but when I was watching other people's work, I could see that it also meant a lot for them. I believe that when you're writing something, and you make it personal, it coues out better, and both the author and the audience will be able to tell.