Revisiting a dialogical autoethnography through positive autoethnography: sisterhood and disability in re-reading my past narrative

First published in 2016, this paper revisits a dialogical autoethnography (DAE) about being the sister of a woman with disabilities, by re-reading the same materials through a positive autoethnography (PosAE) lens. Methodologically, it shows how re-reading a prior DAE through PosAE enables interpretive moves that broaden the interpretive horizon. The original study examined how I understood my sister's interdependent subjectivity and oscillated between family-based and societal value systems. These central insights continue to be meaningful. However, the re-reading brought additional dimensions into view. Scenes of everyday coexistence, relational warmth, and small moments of shared humour became clearer. My sister's interdependent way of living appeared not only as a theoretical counterpoint to independence but also as an affirmative mode of being grounded in connection. Previously treated mainly as signs of tension, tears and bodily reactions emerged as generative signals that opened the space for alternative interpretations. This re-reading also shifted my relationship with my past self as a researcher: rather than correcting an 'incomplete' analysis, I regarded the earlier text as a necessary layer that made later insights possible. Overall, the paper illustrates how PosAE can extend DAE by illuminating resilience, relational vitality, and multiple coexisting meanings within lived experience.