Publication Date
2020
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Adams-Campbell, Melissa
Degree Name
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Legacy Department
Department of English
Abstract
This study examines the effects of vulnerability and trauma in American women’s literature across the intersections of genre, race, and time. In this dissertation I have applied a feminist long history approach to examine women’s literature from the seventeenth through twenty-first centuries together inspired by Mary Beard’s theory that compartmentalizing women’s history ignores long-range patterns and contributions. I have assembled the beginnings of a canon of women’s trauma literature that allows women writers to form a multi-century discourse community wherein trauma and recovery may occur. This analysis applies twentieth century medical research about trauma and recovery, particularly that of Judith Herman, to argue that women create generic spaces and discourse communities that empower them to testify to and recover from sexual trauma through a survey of significant genres of American literature— captivity narratives, slave narratives, seduction novels, sentimental novels, neo-slave narratives, and short story cycles—from the seventeenth through twenty-first centuries. My study is a starting point for further scholarly conversations about women’s vulnerability, trauma, and recovery.
Recommended Citation
Fife, Jennifer L., "Vulnerability, Trauma, and Testimony in American Women’s Literature: A Long History" (2020). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7030.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7030
Extent
212 pages
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
