Dear Claude: An Ongoing Duoethnography of Identity and Displacement

Abstract

Abstract: From the angle of parenting and comparative studies, this duoethnographic study shed light on the identification of a marginalized young being displaced in a supposedly multicultural society. From topics including linguistic melancholia, fractures of feminism, and foodways, the two authors express concerns as well as appreciation in answering cultural related questions. While the topic of identity and displacement seems to have been exhausted in academic writing, the authors of this duoethnography chanced upon conversations on parenting and transnational experiences. Such methodology allows both authors to be researchers and the researched at the same time, while engaging in differences of personal narratives and understandings. Anchoring on personal narratives and reflections, this study focused on how identification and displacement might be embodied in individuals’–in this case, baby Claude’s– life paths. From anecdotal topics including linguistic melancholia and foodways, the two authors express concerns as well as appreciation in wrestling with multiculturalism and identification.