Rupturing Concepts of Disability and Inclusion

CONCEIVING A QUILT: CREATING A METHOD
relationships; and in so doing, exposes the rigidity of the metanarrative of the
Enlightenment for its unashamed exclusion founded on the capacity of abstract,
arelational reasoning. The narrative challenges the tradition to treat thought as an
“instrument of reason” by which its efficacy is “measured against the laws of logic
or induction”; and by which its form is “reducible to machine computability.” 138
My narrative prologuing this research is an expression and interpretation of
my unique experience, my unique positioning, and my unique relationships. The
interpretations of these inform and illustrate, and invoke the use of the imagination
for a different social reality. My narrative embraces Bruner’s notion that “a life as
led is inseparable from a life as told” or life is not only how it was, but how “it is
interpreted and reinterpreted, told and retold.” 139 For a metaphorical patchwork
quilter, the narrative is not separate to the quilt - in the same way as one cannot tell
“the dancer from the dance”. 140 The narrative is the very essence of the quilt.
Arthur Frank highlights the implications for ethics in the sharing of narrative
when he states, “Narrative teaches that being human is the perpetual finding out of
what is good and virtuous, whether the process of that moral inquiry is called the
examined life or reflexive monitoring.” 141 Guy Widdershoven and Maree-Josee
Smits declare that, although narratives can illuminate understanding of participants’
experience, their capacity to make an ethical evaluation is somewhat opaque. 142
However, they also contend that stories are not just literary creations: 143 they are a
central element of life itself. Accordingly, stories embody actions and practices, in
which teleological notions are considered and evaluated for their usefulness in
contributing to the common good and living with others in social conditions that
are just. 144 Narratives evoke moral witnessing, which, in turn, continually configure
the moral self. Frank states:
The moral imperative of narrative ethics is perpetual self-reflection on the
sort of person that one’s story is shaping one into, entailing the requirement
to change that self-story if the wrong self is being shaped. 145
A patchwork quilt is also multivocal, for practices and narratives involve different
voices. The quilt in an ethical context, whilst capturing and expressing stories of its
maker; must also be obliged to upholding the integrity of the participants of the
stories. 146 Christopher Newell warns that potential misuse and unethical use of the
narrative in appropriating ethical decision-making, can lead to injustice and
misappropriation to those whose stories are encountered. Newell challenges us and
reminds us of the inherent danger of treating the participants of the narrative as
means to an end, rather as an end in themselves. 147 To be ethically responsible,
then, requires that although the quilter’s voice frames the context, it must be
sensitive to the challenge of not speaking for others, but speaking out for others
with the respect of mutuality. 148 To emphatically espouse my position, I do not
presume that my interpretation of the events of my narrative are confluent with the
memories and interpretations of others within the story; and I, at no point would
want it assumed that I speak for these others. However, I do ‘speak-up’ for them,
by telling stories which break the silence about their lives, and the obscurities of
their histories.
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