Setting Historical Fiction Ablaze with Autoethnography, Allegory and ADHD

Abstract

To advance autoethnography territory lines, I have conceived a research design that utilises allegory and extended metaphors to write a historical fiction novel and an exegesis. The contextual background derives from my memories of teaching at an Australian high school in the six months after the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Australia in 2020, and the experiential effect of the State and Federal Government’s policies in managing the COVID-19 pandemic on my professional life during this time. The novel is an allegory stemming from my examination of texts that foreground the teaching experiences of women,and establishes the continuity of the historical process of an exceptional situation from Australia’s past (the Spanish Flu epidemic) to the present (the COVID-19 pandemic). In 2021, I received an attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD) diagnosis that has provided another lens to analyse my memories, writing practice and novel. This article explains my research design and how I have used it to develop a form of creative and critical expression that has advanced my capacity to address personal and professional issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.