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Katherine Horigan_Dissertation.pdf (1.17 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

“They probably got us all on the news”: Personal Narratives and Public Trauma in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Horigan, Katherine Greene Parker
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366121790

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
Although stories and images of suffering during Hurricane Katrina saturated public discourse in 2005, the fundamental failures of communication that characterize this catastrophe remain undertheorized—especially the ease with which some stories have been accepted and others ignored. My dissertation brings together representations of the storm’s darkest moments, narrated by eyewitnesses, then shared in a broad spectrum of genres and rhetorical situations. Examining contexts of production, circulation, and reception, I demonstrate that the ways in which survivors’ personal stories are shared with larger audiences can either confirm or confound stereotypical representations of the narrators’ communities, with material consequences for their immediate aid and ongoing recovery. The approaches that drive my analysis include ethnography of communication and narrative performance, critical discourse analysis, rhetorical analysis of life writing, critical race theory, and critical theories of trauma. This project examines Katrina in a new light, focusing on the representational tactics of survivors and the processes by which their narratives are recognized or rejected. Beyond that, this study contributes to current theoretical understandings about how different communicative contexts and rhetorical situations shape the knowledge that is created about trauma and recovery. Texts conveying the eyewitness accounts of survivors have an obligation to include narrators’ critical engagement with the processes by which their stories are being collected and shared.
Amy Shuman (Advisor)
Ray Cashman (Committee Member)
Wendy Hesford (Committee Member)
Maurice Stevens (Committee Member)
201 p.
Folklore; Rhetoric

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Horigan, K. G. P. (2013). “They probably got us all on the news”: Personal Narratives and Public Trauma in Post-Katrina New Orleans [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366121790

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Horigan, Katherine. “They probably got us all on the news”: Personal Narratives and Public Trauma in Post-Katrina New Orleans . 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366121790.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Horigan, Katherine. "“They probably got us all on the news”: Personal Narratives and Public Trauma in Post-Katrina New Orleans ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366121790

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1366121790
563
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.