“Horrible Stories”: Memories of Former Pupils of a Boarding School for Children with Mental Retardation about their Childhood

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/61-72

Abstract

The article is devoted to the specific narrative genre "horrible stories" which is used by deinstitutionalized adults with learning disabilities. Most of the stories revolve around several common «traumatic» subjects which can be divided into two groups: horrible life in the family before institutionalization and gruesome life inside the institution (orphanages for children and adults). In this paper I analyze these narratives to show how, in the context of an interview, which reveals extremely different social statuses of its participants, these adults reconstruct their «traumatic» past and build their identities using a special narrative strategy – the demonstration of extremely extraordinary experiences. The purpose of this strategy is to arouse listener’s interest, respect, or empathy and it is a way to ask for help or some benefit, on the other hand this strategy allows them to declare their own agency by demonstrating intensive efforts to defend their subjectivity back in childhood.

For Citation: Altuhova, A.N.. 2021. “Horrible Stories”: Memories of Former Pupils of a Boarding School for Children with Mental Retardation about their Childhood. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53): 61–72.

References

• Altukhova, A. 2018. Idilliia doma v derevne: Sel'skie poseleniia dlia liudei s intellektual'noi invalidnost'iu [The rural idyll: intellectual disability in the context of rural community group homes]. In: Obratnaia storona luny ili chto my ne znaem ob invalidnosti: teoriia, reprezentatsii, praktiki [The Other Side of the Moon, or What We Don't Know about Disability: Theory, Representations, Practices], edited by A.S. Kurlenkova and E.E. Nosenko-Shtein, 323–355. Moscow: OOO “MBA”.
• Altukhova, A.N. 2018. Intellektual'naia invalidnost' i bolezn' v usloviiakh soprovozhdaemogo prozhivaniia [Intellectual disability and illness: the case of community care in group homes]. Antropologicheskii forum 37: 120–148.
• Astoiants, M.S. 2006. Deti-siroty: analiz zhiznennykh praktik v usloviiakh internatnogo uchrezhdeniia. Opyt vkliuchennogo nabliudeniia [Orphan children: An analysis of life practices under conditions of a boarding institution]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia 3: 54–63.
• Becker, H. 2018. Autsaidery: issledovaniia po sotsiologii deviantnosti [Outsiders: studies in the sociology of deviance]. Moscow: Elementarnye formy.
• Bilson, A., Markova, G. 2007. But you should see their families: Preventing child abandonment and promoting. Social Work & Social Sciences Review 12 (3): 57–78.
• Breeva, E.B. 2004. Sotsial'noe sirotstvo. Opyt sotsiologicheskogo obsledovaniia [Social orphans: Sociological study]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia 4: 44–50.
• Cox, C. 1997. Research, reform and new hope for russian orphans and abandoned children. Trajectories of Despair: Misdiagnosis and Maltreatment of Soviet Orphans. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health 7 (2): 111–116.
• De Fina, A., Georgakopoulou, A. 2011. Analyzing narrative: Discourse and sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
• Dement'eva. I.F. 2011. Faktory riska sovremennogo detstva [The risk factor of modern childhood]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia 10: 108–114.
• Dunn, E. 2000. The Disabled in Russia in the 1990s. In: Russia’s Torn Safety Nets, Palgrave Macmillan US, 153–171.
• Elliott, M.R. 2008. Russian Children at Risk. Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe 28 (3): 1–26.
• Goffman, E. 2019. Total'nye instituty: ocherki o sotsial'noi situatsii psikhicheski bol'nykh patsientov i prochikh postoial'tsev zakrytykh uchrezhdenii [Total institutions: essays on the social situation of mentally ill patients and other residents of privat institutions]. Moscow: Elementarnye formy.
• Iarskaia-Smirnova, E.R. 1997. Narrativnyi analiz v sotsiologii [Narrative analysis in sociology]. Sotsiologicheskii zhurnal 3: 38–61.
• Iarskaia-Smirnova E.R., Teper G.A., Grek N.V. 2008. Broshennye deti: problemy profilaktiki rannego sotsial'nogo sirotstva [Abandoned children: problems of preventing early social orphanhood]. Zhenshchina v rossiiskom obshchestve 3: 1–15.
• Kelli, K. 2008. Deti gosudarstva, 1935–1953 [Children of the state, 1935–1953]. Neprikosnovennyi zapas. http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2008/2/kk5-pr.html.
• Klepikova, A. 2018. Naverno ia durak: antropologicheskii roman [I’m probably an idiot: anthropological novel]. Saint-Peterburg: Avtonomnaia nekommercheskaia obrazovatel'naia organizatsiia vysshego obrazovaniia “Evropeiskii universitet v Sankt-Peterburge”.
• Langellier, K.M. 2001. You’re marked. Breast cancer, tattoo and the narrative performance of identity. In Narrative and identity: Studies in autobiography, self, and culture, edited by Brockmeier, Jens and Carbaugh, Donald, 145–184.
• Matiusheva, T.N. 2010. Pravovoe regulirovanie obrazovaniia detei-sirot, detei-invalidov i detei s deviantnym povedeniem v dorevoliutsionnoi Rossii i v SSSR [Legal regulation of education for orphans, disabled children and children with deviant behavior in pre-revolutionary Russia and the USSR]. Sovremennoe pravo 6: 147–151.
• Nirje, B. 1970. I – the Normalization Principle – Implications and Comments. The Journal of Mental Subnormality 16 (31): 62–70.
• Nosenko-Shtein, E.E. 2018. Opyt drugoi zhizni: samoreprezentatsiia liudei s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostiami zdorov'ia v avtobiografiiakh [Another life experience: self-representation of people with disabilities in autobiographies]. In: Obratnaia storona luny ili chto my ne znaem ob invalidnosti: teoriia, reprezentatsii, praktiki [The Other Side of the Moon, or What We Don't Know about Disability: Theory, Representations, Practices], edited by A.S. Kurlenkova and E.E. Nosenko-Shtein, 95–126. M.: OOO “MBA”.
• Riessman, C.K. 2000. Analysis of personal narratives. In: Qualitative research in social work, Boston University, 168–191.
• Riessman, C.K. 2000. Even If We Don’t Have Children [We] Can Live. In: Narrative and the cultural construction of illness and healing. University of California Press, 128–152.
• Rockhill, E.K. 2010. Lost to the state: Family discontinuity, social orphanhood and residential care in the Russian Far East. Berghahn Books.
• Scheff, T.J. 1966. Being Mentally Ill: A Sociological Theory. Chicago: Aldine.
• Schmidt, V. 2009. Orphan care in Russia. Social Work & Society 7 (1): 58–69.
• Wortham, S.E.F. 2001. Narratives in action: A strategy for research and analysis. Teachers College Press.