Silence, Fragmentation, and Embodied Trauma: A Cross-Genre Examination of Narratives of Sexual Violence from Women of Color Open Access

Abstract

In the contemporary post-#MeToo social climate—in which reports of sexual violence are more abundant and less stigmatized than ever before—I contend that it is increasingly imperative to pay nuanced, scholarly attention to the personal and political power of trauma narratives. As such, I aim to critically examine first-person accounts of sexual violence from women of color, which represent some of the most silenced stories in our social imaginary. An interdisciplinary, intersectional project that lives at the nexus of the fields of narrative psychology, literary analysis, and cultural studies, this thesis considers autobiographical personal narratives drawn from the Grady Trauma Project alongside published literary personal texts. In placing these traditionally disparate genres in conversation with each other, this project strives to bridge the void between theory and lived experience.

The aim of this work is twofold: to create a platform to hear the too-often silenced narratives of sexual violence from women of color, and, on a broader scale, to contribute to a legacy that elevates and validates the stories of marginalized, understudied populations who, historically, have been denied hegemonic subjectivity. To that end, I harnessed qualitative analysis methods to delve deeply into the ten narratives in this corpus, and ultimately focused on four recurring themes that emerged through immersive, iterative readings: silence and voice, embodied trauma, fragmentation, and particularized trauma. The results of this analysis revealed that women from both corpora described experiences of sexual violence in remarkably similar language, suggesting that the chasm between theory and lived experience may not be as wide as previously imagined. 

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………......…1

             The Personal and Political Power of Trauma Narratives...…………………………………..…….2

             The Voices Missing from #MeToo……………………………………..………………………...……...5

             Motivations for Increased Intersectionality in Trauma Scholarship…………..…………......…7

             The Current Study………………………………………………………………………..…………....……9

Methods.……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…...…13

             Qualitative Analysis Overview…………………………………………………………………......…..13

             Selection of Personal Narratives……………………………………………………...…………….....14

             Selection of Literary Texts…………………………………………..……………………..……….......15

             Immersive and Iterative Reading…………………………………………..…………………..……...16

Themes………………………………...……………………………………………………………………….....…17

                          Silence and Voice………………………………………………………………………..…….....17

                          Embodied Trauma……………………………………………………………………...……......18

             Fragmentation……………………………………………………………………………………….........19

                          Particularized Trauma…………………………………………………………………….….....20

Results…………………………………………………………………….………………………………………......20

             Qualitative Analysis of Personal Narratives………………………………………………....……....21

                          Participant 1: Rebecca………………………………………………………………..……….....21

                          Participant 2: Sarah……………………………………………………………………..………..24

                          Participant 3: Jane……………………………………………………………………….…….....27

                          Participant 4: Lydia……………………………………………………………………..………..29

                          Participant 5: Maria………………………………………………………………………...…….32

             Qualitative Analysis of Literary Texts…………………………………...…………………….……...34

                          Text 1: Hunger by Roxane Gay……………………………………………………………...….34

                          Text 2: “Picture Perfect” by Sharisse Tracey……………………………………………......40

                          Text 3: “Removing the Mask” by Aishah Shahidah Simmons………………………......43

                          Text 4: “Fuck Off” by Anonymous……………………………………………………..…/…..47

                          Text 5: “Innocence” by Xiomara Castro………………………………………………….…..50

Discussion………………………………………………………………….……………………………………/……55

             Holistic Theme Analysis……………………………………………………………………....……….…56

Conclusions……………………………………………………………..…………………….……………......…...61

             Limitations and Future Directions…………………………………………………………….....…….62

References……………………………………………………………….………………………………..…………...65

        

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Social
Keyword	Trauma Studies Cultural Studies Literary Analysis Interdisciplinary Methods Qualitative Analysis Narrative Psychology
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Robyn Fivush, Emory University
Committee Members	Dr. Marshall Duke, Emory University Dr. Cynthia Blakeley, Emory University

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