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|
Volume 2 Number 1
Fall 2007
| Negotiating
Motherhood: A Dialogical Approach Filipa Duarte & Miguel M. Gonçalves University of Minho, Portugal |
pp. 249-275 |
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| ABSTRACT. This
study assumes a dialogical perspective towards the processes of
identity construction during the transition to motherhood, and it
relies on a methodology that invites the participants to deal with the
dualities of the dialogical self (Dialogical Articulation Task - DAT).
Using this semi-structured interview, we ask the participants to
identify the various self-descriptive dimensions of their selves and to
give an independent voice to each of them. These voices are
conceptualized as discursive I-positions, and the person is asked to
perform the exercise of alternately moving between each of the
positions and activate dialogues among them, as well as between them
and the significant interlocutors. Transition to motherhood implies the
construction of a new maternal identity, but it also involves a
necessary re-organization and accommodation of the previous identity
positions that constitute the personal repertoire. Assuming that this
transition is informed by a constant interplay between different and
sometimes demanding identity positions, we explore the meanings
constructed in order to elaborate this experience, focusing on the ways
women negotiate their new maternal identity. Ambivalence and tension
between the different meanings constructed by women concerning
motherhood are evidenced through the semiotic analysis of the
interviews. |
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| Keywords: dialogical self, self-regulation, semiotic mediation, life transition, motherhood | ||