Abstract

My research focuses on how young men in prison perform/form/reform their narrative identity during the participation in a new spoken word poetry programme in a Macedonian prison. In this presentation I will elaborate and illustrate the use of the method of cubist poetic portraiture for life story analysis which yields profound insights into the nature of narrative identity. The cubist poetic portraiture method involves reflective processes of combining narrative, cubist poetic techniques, and collage making as data generation, interpretation and findings clarification.

Afrodita Nikolova is an award-winning poet/performer and educator/researcher fascinated by the cross-pollination of disciplines as well as the role of the arts, research, creativities and imagination in personal growth, social justice, and world-making. A part of the Versopolis platform for emerging European poets, Afrodita is currently completing a PhD in at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge where she’s been at the core of the arts-based research event Arts Kaleidoscope in the past five years. Hear more about the use of spoken word poetry as a research method in a TEDx University of Cambridge talk by Afrodita here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xO-qPnuy8M&feature=share.