Metis and Cixous: Cunning Resistance, Bodily Intelligence and Allies

In this chapter, I will reflect on my autoethnographical journey over the past two decades from my early encounters with Cixous to my discovery of Metis, the Greek Goddess, which led to the birth of Metis (I italise Metis where I am writing about the theatre project), an original theatre project as a medium to tell, perform and stage the stories and lived experiences of intimate abuse and violence. This chapter will draw on autoethnographical work that spans nearly two decades and interweaves creative and embodied scriptwriting and storymaking process inspired by Cixous’ écriture féminine. Performative and critical autoethnography provide a powerful platform that gives voice to previously silenced stories and bodies. More than ever, we need to create spaces for critical, creative, experimental and imaginative autoethnography as important contemporary research methods and forms that break free of what Judith Brett describes as academic writing that “never leaves school, that never grows beyond the judging” (Griffith scited in Griffiths, Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration, Monash Publications, Melbourne, 3, 2000). We need critical work that responds to contemporary lived experiences that remain marginalised from dominant public and academic discourses.