Traumatic possessions : the body and memory in African American women's writing and performance by Griffiths, Jennifer L., 1968- instant download

Traumatic possessions : the body and memory in African American women's writing and performance by Griffiths, Jennifer L., 1968- instant download

1 online resource (x, 134 pages), Griffiths (English, New York Institute of Technology, Manhattan) looks at how African American writers and playwrights have explored ruptures in memory after a traumatic experience and attempted to develop creative strategies for understanding the inscription of trauma on the body in a racialized cultural context. By examining several literary and performance texts, the author shows how the self is reconstituted through testimony--the putting into language and public statement the struggle of survivors to negotiate the limits placed on their bodies and speak controversial truths. By focusing on the relation of trauma to race and on the influence of racism on the creation and reception of narrative testimony, Griffiths' book distinguishes itself from other studies of the literatures of trauma. Annotation ♭2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com), Includes bibliographical references (pages 121-129) and index, \"The quick gasp of sympathy\": trauma and interracial witnessing in Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose -- Betrayal trauma and the test of complicity in Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus -- Between women: trauma, witnessing, and the legacy of interracial rape in Robbie Mccauley's Sally's rape -- Uncanny spaces: trauma, cultural memory, and female body in Gayl Jones's Corregidora -- \"I have never seen a movie like that\": traumatic memory and the \"acceleration of history\" in Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Print version record