Music as Medicine: An Evocative Bi-Autoethnography of Surviving Divorce

Authors

Annabella Sok Kuan Fung, Monash UniversityFollow

Abstract

As a musician-researcher of Chinese musicians’ journeys, I was confronted with stories that led me to interrogate my own worldviews. As my identity shifted in this experiential process, I became an autoethnographer by serendipity. Autoethnography is storytelling that blurs the boundaries between humanities and sciences, expressing lived experience in novel and literary forms, depicting stories and including authors’ critical reflection on their lives and writing process, with the purpose of transforming self and society. This evocative autoethnography explores the phenomenon of divorce, in reference to my personal experience and another musician’s lived experience interpreted through my understanding as a participant-researcher. This project integrates autoethnographical and phenomenological approaches in the analysis of two intertwining narratives. Two overarching themes will be explored: music as medicine, and divine hope in healing. Musicking and our Christian faith had transformed us from heart-brokenness to survival. I draw on multiple intersections to theorize about these two tales from two generations. This is the essence of autoethnographic research where theorizing takes different forms and can be engaged through multiple points of contact and streams of processing. The retelling of our stories captures something alive, and challenges biases associated with divorce and predicted by cultural norms. Our bi- autoethnography is staged-storied-scholarship that is therapeutic and embodied. It incorporates evocative texts, dramatic narratives and musical presentations that combine to communicate our inner-worlds to others who might share a similar experience. This study explores new directions in finding authentic selves through qualitative inquiry with the creative use of multimedia in autoethnographic performances.

Keywords

Evocative Autoethnography, Divorce, Musicking, Divine Hope, Storytelling, Narrative

Author Bio(s)

Annabella Fung is a recipient of numerous scholarships, awards and research grants. She is a musician, psychotherapist and language teacher. Annabella completed postgraduate studies in psychology, music and languages. Currently, she is a receiving the Australian Postgraduate Award to pursue a “PhD with Publication,” while taking up research-teaching assistantship at the faculty. Annabella’s research targets diverse academic journals; she is an interdisciplinary applied researcher focusing on autoethnography, phenomenology, narrative inquiry, and the philosophical and psychological aspects of teaching and learning. Annabella is actively engaged in presenting her research at inter/national conferences, and committed to composing, publishing and teaching studio music. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: Room G22B, 29, Ancora Imparo Way, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Wellington Rd, Clayton, Vic, 3800, Australia; Phone: +613 99052815, 0400882081; Email: annabella.fung@monash.edu.

Acknowledgements

I owe a special debt of gratitude to Lily and my two children for simply being themselves. Their courage to overcome adversities has inspired me to continue my work researching about life. I want to thank my supervisor for making the article more succinct to enable the flow of storytelling.

Publication Date

5-15-2016

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2124

Recommended APA Citation

Fung, A. S. (2016). Music as Medicine: An Evocative Bi-Autoethnography of Surviving Divorce. The Qualitative Report, 21(5), 884-898. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2124