Writing Beyond the Silence E-Book

Libera Università dell'Autobiografia

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

This methodological Manual, that is the final product of the Project “Writing beyond the Silence. Promoting autobiographical competences to help survivors of gender violence” (co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Daphne III program), addresses public organizations and institutions that wish to use the autobiographical approach in the supporting and listening work they do by adopting and implementing the good practices produced by the Project. The main goal of the Manual is to be a tool for educators and trainers, for the counselors who work in facilities that provide support to women who have experienced violence. The Manual presents methods that may be further developed and fine-tuned but they undoubtedly are a valid starting point for the introduction of new practices based on the real experience of all those who for a long time have been working with skills and sensitivity in the helping professions.

Leseprobe

Writing Beyond the silence

Promoting Autobiographical Competence

Disclaimer

This publication and its annexes have been produced with the financial support of the DAPHNE III Programme of the European Union. The contents of this publication and of its annexes are the sole responsibility of the Libera Università dell’Autobiografia and its Project’s partners (EAVN, CooLabora and Istituzione Solidea) and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission.

This Manual has been prepared in English, Italian, Greek and Portuguese, with support for some chapters from professional translators. The English version includes all partners’ specific contributions. The versions in each language differ in some parts: for example, the Annex of the English version of the Manual contains all the articles, while Italian, Greek and Portuguese versions of the Manual’s Annex report only the Annex written by the operators of the respective country. Also other parts of the Manual may vary due to cultural and linguistic adaptation.

Design and Layout by Ada Ascari - [email protected]

© 2015 LIBERA UNIVERSITA’ DELL’AUTOBIOGRAFIA – This work may be reproduced and redistributed, in whole or in part, without alteration and without prior written permission, provided the source is acknowledged.

ISBN for the English version: 978-88-91185-66-2

Commons rights registration

Preface

Stefania Bolletti

Searching, planning and developing thinking, identifying new educational paths by asserting the value of writing constitute the elements of a project that was conceived and developed in Italy, to be precise, in the Medieval hamlet of Anghiari in Tuscany, thanks to the contribution, commitment skills and passion of many men and women who together have formed an unique scientific community on the Italian scene: the Libera Università dell’Autobiografia (Open University of Autobiographical Writing).

The Libera Università dell’Autobiografia is a cultural association that since 1998, the year it was founded, seeks to be a place which welcomes anyone who wishes to reflect, deepen and test out the value of autobiographical writing. The association presents itself as a constantly evolving community which, through the experience built up by individuals and groups belonging to it in the various territories of reference or disciplinary fields, deals not only with theoretical contributions but also studies the results of experimental and innovative “field-developed” activities that generate new orientations and new spaces for reflection.

The self-educational aims of the autobiographical approach guiding all activities of Libera Università dell’Autobiografia of Anghiari are to promote and support the possibilities that each human being can express in re-reading and re-interpreting the past experiences that are an intimate part of us, that follow every change we make, including painful events.

When human experiences are re-processed through autobiographical narration and writing, they produce knowledge about oneself and about one’s life in a socio-cultural context and become the living part of a story. Our story. Narrating one’s personal story means proceeding in the direction of the research: a research that may tie together, according to its own plot, the events that have been experienced and that run the risk of being forgotten fluctuating in an indistinct space.

Revisiting our story offers the opportunity to narrate that story to ourselves and to others, to share existential conditions deemed to be unutterable, to try to give an explanation for the events of which we were the protagonists and to try to attribute meaning to our actions. The Project Writing beyond Silence has adopted this vision that is characterized by giving value to written words. In written words, experts, professionals and women who have experienced violence have built a space where they can test out the great potential that writing offers in dealing with conditions of existential discomfort, suffering and pain caused by violence against women. A space where it is possible to entrust oneself to narration and to mutual listening, to feel other people’s presence and closeness, to bring to light the unutterable in being welcomed by the other.

Even though important measures and provisions have been adopted on a European scale (the “EU Directive 2012/29/EU on victims and the Istanbul Convention” was signed in 2011) designed to globally deal with the various forms of violence against women (psychological, stalking, physical violence ...) and to stimulate Member States to introduce into their legal order provisions for preventing and repressing such acts that are to be considered as a violation of fundamental rights, it is nevertheless necessary to add to these measures the development of research and provide incentives to the many organizations in civil society that, in practice and with innovative approaches, deal with the phenomenon of violence and the silence that accompanies such events. Too many women still find it difficult to file complaints about their experience and withdraw into silence.

A silence that is not an empty space; within that silence there is a constant internal dialogue about the unforgettable memory that hinders the possibility of recovering any trace of new existential, relational and affective meaning because of the unprocessed burden of the trauma. Recent biographic and narrative approaches show that narration is a central element in the lives of human beings. The individual narration of stories generates a mental organization of a personal biography that, where adequately intertwined with the stories of other lives, contributes to giving meaning to one’s experiences and to one’s life.

Indeed, our lives are constantly intertwined with narrations, with stories that we tell or that others tell us (in the most diverse forms), stories that we dream of, or imagine, or that we would like to be able to tell. They are all processed into the story of our life, the story that we tell ourselves in a long episodic, often unaware, virtually uninterrupted, monologue.

In the Project Writing beyond the Silence, the theoretical and methodological aspects have come together with the practical experience of those who every day intersect their lives with those of women who are seeking someone who will listen to them and support them in bearing their discomfort. From this encounter reflections have emerged that have given new stimuli to all the fields involved in the research, enabling a mutual exchange and recognition of the value expressed by this practice. The people who took part in the Project, by giving substance to its contents, gave a precious contribution deriving from their work and, following their training in the autobiographical approach and its application to real cases, they were able to analyze and appreciate the results of this new methodology. The stories written by the women who were able to speak about their experience as a result of the application of the autobiographical approach represent one of the results of the Project.

This methodological Manual, that is the final product of the Project Writing beyond the Silence, addresses public organizations and institutions that wish to use the autobiographical approach in the supporting and listening work they do by adopting and implementing the good practices produced by the Project. The main goal of the Manual is to be a tool for educators and trainers, for the counselors who work in facilities that provide support to women who have experienced violence. The Manual presents methods that may be further developed and fine-tuned but they undoubtedly are a valid starting point for the introduction of new practices based on the real experience of all those who for a long time have been working with skills and sensitivity in the helping professions.

The Project

Description of the Project

Virginia Meo

Can autobiographical writing be an instrument for “self-treatment” for women who have experienced violence? Can writing about the episodes of one’s life help women re-think their story making them aware of new and at times unexpected aspects of themselves? What are the requirements in order for such practices to be used in the support provided by professionals of anti-violence centers and of support services and what type of training do they need? These are the questions that the project Writing beyond the silence. Promoting autobiographical competences to help survivors of gender violence (JUST/2012/DAP/AG/3448) has tried to answer.

Co-funded by the European Commission within the framework of the Daphne III program, the project was coordinated by the Libera Università dell’Autobiographia of Anghiari (LUA) and implemented in partnership with Istituzione Solidea – Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale (Italy), CooLabora (Portugal) and the European Anti-Violence Network – EAVN (Greece). Assistance was provided by Association Maschile Plurale (Italy), University of Beira Interior (Portugal) and the General Secretariat for Gender Equality (GSGE) of the Greek Ministry of Interior (Greece) in their capacity as associate partners.