ABSTRACT
I did not deliberately set out to explore the river, but after my neighbour Jean died I found myself walking along what was left of its banks, wondering where it came from and flowed to. This neglected little stream became a symbol of past lives and how these narratives had shaped the valley that Jean and I shared. My inquiry takes the form of a layered text moving between notes from my research journal, handmade maps based on personal local landmarks and prose written as if from the landscape itself. I reflect on this process and consider Jean’s storytelling as a social action that created a sense of belonging in us both. I look at how her narratives were constructed within this physical place (Baynham 2003) and ask new questions of them so my walking becomes a ‘process of appropriation’ (De Certeau 1988, 97) allowing me to re-inhabit the valley without her. I notice how making the maps allowed me to connect my memories and imaginings with physical places, thereby aligning fragmented aspects of myself. In particular I find that trying to determine the river’s shifting course becomes a metaphor for the mobile and uncertain process of narrative research.
