TOUCHING THE CENTER THAT BURNS: AN EXORCISM

<p>This thesis seeks to explore the relationship between language, traumatic memory, and identity. Through a cross-genre creative style of writing and scholarship, the writer engages with trauma theory, performative language theory, psychoanalysis, and literature in order to illuminate how language, in its various forms, is the key to self-reclamation after a traumatic event terrorizes the body and mind. Additionally, through the lens of personal narrative, the writer investigates how relationships with language, the reverberations of trauma, and the tumultuous motion of our formative years can affect the development of identity by way of memory. The scope of the narrative illustrates a journey through traumatic memory and an investigation of critical theory, while also employing the language-based framework for recovery. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Finch, Maggie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Matthew Frank

• trauma
• traumatic memory
• language
• memory
• identity
• recovery
• trauma theory
• Nonfiction
• Other Arts and Humanities

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/619

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.nmu.edu:theses-1652