Sketching as autoethnographic practice

This article is an autoethnographic sketch that draws out substantive observations about the sketchy character of concepts such as identity, theory, self, and society. Using vignettes from my experiences as an art student, post-structuralist theory, and symbolic interaction, I render a brief sketch of how autoethnography and other representations of self can be conveyed in a layered process. The materials in each vignette may not seem to be consistent with or related to the other layers, but as each layer is superimposed on the others, an image or impression emerges from the whole. By presenting these materials in this way, the format or metaphor of sketching offers autoethnographers the possibility of doing analysis and evocation, while leaving open other interpretive possibilities. Artificial closure is not imposed on the final product. I also briefly sketch how self and society exist sous rature and in différance to each other, thus making autoethnographic sketching a useful tool for symbolic interactionists and other observers of society. © 2007 by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction