Writing Against Othering

Abstract

Writing about the Other arouses questions of representation, and specifically the risk of Othering, that is, the risk of portraying the other essentially different, and translating this difference to inferiority. In this article the authors discuss the textual mechanisms that create Othering and suggest three modes of writing that have the potential to resist Othering: (1) narrative, which enables the retrieval of subjectivity; (2) dialog, which reveals the personal history of the research participant and her interpretation regarding it; and (3) reflexivity, which transforms the text by adding the author’s own feelings, experiences, and history as a vehicle to understand the research participant. The article presents the importance of resisting Othering in academic writing, exemplifies the three modes, and discusses their potential contribution.