On the Verge: Phenomenology and Empathic Unsettlement

• Published in: The Journal of American folklore 2011-06, Vol.124 (493), p.147-174
• Main Author: Shuman, Amy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allegories; Allegory; Analysis; Anthropology; Anthropology, Cultural - education; Anthropology, Cultural - history; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Children with disabilities; Cognitive problems, arts and sciences, folk traditions, folklore; Criticism and interpretation; Cultural anthropology; Cultural identity; Disabilities; Disability; Disabled Children - education; Disabled Children - history; Disabled Children - psychology; Down syndrome; Down Syndrome - ethnology; Down Syndrome - history; Empathy; Ethnic Studies; Ethnography; Ethnology; Etiquette; Folklore; Goffman, Erving (1922-1982); History of medicine; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Kinship; Learning; Narrative empathy; Narratives; Narrators; Oral/folk literature; Parent-child relations; Parents; People with disabilities; Phenomenology; Portrayals; Social Stigma; Stigma; Stigma (Social psychology); Tales, legends; Text analysis
• ISSN: 0021-8715; 1535-1882
• DOI: 10.5406/jamerfolk.124.493.0147

Using a phenomenological approach to questions about empathy and stigma, this essay explores stories told by parents of children with disabilities. In a close reading of “Welcome to Holland,” an allegorical account of discovering that one’s child has Down syndrome, I explore the concepts of narrative alignment (and positionality) and the politics of recognition in narratives about disability. In addition, this autoethnographic account describes my own “empathic unsettlement” as a parent and as an ethnographer.