Women's narratives from Jeju Island : a practical theological reflection

Abstract

This research seeks to establish a postfoundational practical theology and the corresponding narrative approach to the contextual experience narratives of Jeju women. Its approach helps the readers to understand the co-researchers’ interpreted experience and to open their future narratives. This research attempts to discover the privileged values, themes, and social-constructed meaning of the co-researchers’ narratives. The postfoundational epistemology, which is proposed by Van Huyssteen and the “Seven movements” proposed by J.C Müller, has been used as a guideline. The research begins with the co-researchers’ storied experiences as a basic source of context. The co-researchers' context of Jeju Island has a very unique tradition, culture, religion and history. In order to investigate how they interpret their experiences situated in their own contexts, the researcher not only considers Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic theory of three mimesis, composed of pre-figuration, configuration, and re-figuration, alongside social constructionism, but also employs Michael White’s narrative therapy theory of deconstruction and re-authoring conversation for delineating thickened and alternative stories. The examination of the research context of Jeju Island, its history of Sasamsageon, as well as its tradition and culture in chapter four are conducted for the purpose of understanding and discovering the necessary meaning of the co-researchers’ narratives and values. In order to listen to the Jeju women’s experience narratives in their contexts, I have chosen four people who have lived in Jeju Island for a long generation. According to the perspective of the narrative approach, an attempt is made to focus on the personal meaning-making that the co-researchers assign to specific events in their lives and on how the co-researchers tell the story of these meaning-making and interpret their experiences. These co-researchers’ stories are to say about their relationship with their families and communities. The stories also include some background of their lives, particularly concentrating on the recent struggles they experienced and their understanding of their own relationships with God. Based on the co-researchers’ narratives and the process of the research, in regard to the goal of this postfoundational narrative research, i.e., looking for the meaning of the co-researchers’ narratives and creating new meaning through discourse, in chapter six, I present not only the interpretation of what they say, but also the meaning and understanding of the co-researchers’ own stories that are developed by means of discoursing with the given context. This research is presented for how to cultivate the alternative interpretations, which allowed the co-researchers to explore preferred views of their futures through discourse and conversation. And then I explicate the three interventions and interactions used for empowering and opening to the better future.