Memoirists’ Portrayal of School Bullying

Abstract

Using memoirs as textual data and qualitative content analysis as a research method, this interdisciplinary study, guided by the social dominance, dominance, and humiliation theories, as well as Olweus’s definition of bullying, reports on four female memoirists’ portrayals of school bullying. Both the social dominance and the dominance theories indicate that individuals bully one another in their attempts to gain group- and individual-levels of dominance, and thereafter maintain their status through ongoing bullying and humiliation. The study identified victims, perpetrators or bullies, and bystanders as the key role players in the bullying triangle. The memoirists were subjected to social isolation, exclusion, and cyber, verbal, physical, and prejudice-related bullying. The study highlights the serious effects of bullying on the memoirists’ lives. The study found that the all-encompassing, borderless nature of school bullying was aggravated by the advent of the internet and cyberbullying. Juxtaposing the findings of the current study with previous research enhanced the trustworthiness of the study and gave prominence to the usefulness of memoirs as textual data in studying emotional topics. This study expands the limited research on the use of memoirs in creating an awareness of bullying in schools. Owing to the gendered nature of bullying, it is recommended that future studies include memoirs written by male victims.