ABSTRACT
Writing the author's own body story provided her with an experiential ground from which to appreciate the courage and risk her research participants took in telling her their stories, and guided her in the process of trying to do justice to their efforts. She has two stories to tell. The first, and most central to her intentions, is the story of her body as shadow, as the abjected other in the larger story of her life. The second story is, in many respects, a counter-narrative. It is the story of how her body resisted the pressure to disappear, how it pushed for attention and primacy in her experience, and how she alternately supported and refused those impulses. Although these two stories are being told as if they were separate and opposed narratives, in truth, they are inextricably woven together and exist within her in constant and subtle interplay.
