Copyright by Crystal Marie Kurzen 2011
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Copyright by Crystal Marie Kurzen 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Crystal Marie Kurzen Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “Choosing our own metaphors”: Genre and Method in Contemporary Chicana/o Life Narratives Committee: Domino Renee Perez, Supervisor James H. Cox Ann Cvetkovich John M. González Martha Menchaca “Choosing our own metaphors”: Genre and Method in Contemporary Chicana/o Life Narratives by Crystal Marie Kurzen, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2011 Acknowledgements While writing this dissertation, I was fortunate enough to have been surrounded by an incredible group of people, whose support and camaraderie over the years have become invaluable. I want to thank my advisor, Domino Renee Perez, for her keen insight and detailed feedback throughout the process. I very much appreciate her belief in me as a scholar and her assertion that I am doing important work. Additionally, I thank her for taking a chance on me when she hired me as her research assistant several years ago as she was working diligently to revise and publish her first book. Being trusted in that position was an honor, and seeing her book come to life in such a behind-the-scenes manner has given me great energy to work toward the publication of my own monograph someday. Our conversations have been many over the years, and I credit her with making my graduate school experience so engaging and productive. Her work is an inspiration to me. I would like to thank James H. Cox who also served on my dissertation committee. He has been such a source of encouragement and is always very supportive of my work. His comments at my defense have helped me to continue revising and expanding my claims in the pages that follow. Thanks go to him as well for writing an endless number of recommendation letters and for serving as my teaching mentor along the way. Additionally, I want to thank John M. González for serving on my dissertation committee. His astute question about Postmodernist form during my defense has kept me thinking and pushed me to develop a better answer than the one I initially offered. I would also like to thank Ann Cvetkovich. She has been a source of support as well and has been very generous with her time, writing recommendation letters, answering questions, and meeting to discuss the performative aspects of the work of Michele Serros iv on which I focus in my third chapter. Martha Menchaca also served on my dissertation committee and has been incredibly supportive of my work. Taking her course in Anthropology on oral traditions aided me specifically when I was writing about autoethnography and form in my Introduction. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the Department of English during my time at UT. TAships and AIships have been invaluable over the years, and I have appreciated the opportunity to develop as not only a scholar while I have been at UT, but also as a teacher. I would also like to thank my friends at the Center for Mexican American Studies. I have been lucky enough to have taught several classes that were cross-listed through CMAS and have really enjoyed working with everyone there. They have been incredibly kind, and I appreciate the support of this Center more than I can ever say. The diverse and creative programming has greatly impacted my way of thinking and added so much to my experience here at UT. CMAS has been a home for me. Thanks go to Johannah Hochhalter, Ileana Cerda, Natasha Saldaña, Luis Guevara, Alberto Gonzalez, José Limón, Domino Perez, and Deborah Paredez. Additional thanks go to my writing group comrades over the years: Domino Perez, Jackie Cuevas, Lacey Donohue, Amara Graf, Melanie Haupt, Olga Herrera, Erin Hurt, and Lydia Wilmeth-French. Their insightful feedback at various stages has helped this project grow to fruition. Their friendship has also meant the world to me. I would not have gotten to this point, both professional and personally, without all of them. I also would like to thank other friends whose kindnesses have been great: Layne Parish Craig, your friendship has meant so much to me, and I very much appreciate your support and encouragement over the years. Our many outings together are some of the fondest memories I have of my time living in Texas; Lena Khor, thanks for your friendship and support through many years on this journey; Molly Hardy, you have given me such v energy over the years. Thanks for being a good listener and offering such practical advice along the way; Aména Moïnfar, what a wonderful journey we have taken together! Thanks for a great year of adventures together; Michelle S. Lee, thanks for your sweet spirit and for getting us all together for Craft Night; Ingrid Devilliers, thanks for your encouragement and your willingness to meet and work together while I was finishing up my Conclusion. It has been really nice getting to know you over the past couple of years, and I enjoy spending time with you and Ashby; Pat Garcia, I have appreciated our coffees and lunches together discussing our course material as well as everyday life circumstances; and to Julia Lee, your class on Asian American and African American literatures was fantastic. I have especially appreciated you taking the time to have coffee or lunch while offering helpful advice on the job market or publishing. Thanks for your time and for your thoughtful feedback on my Pat Mora article. I hope for many more opportunities to spend time with each and every one of you. I would also like to thank some dear friends who live outside of Austin: Shelley Caltharp Brocklebank, Katherine Ewald Olson, Kristen Champion Terrell, Emily Hogue, and Treva Barker. Although I met these women long ago during our undergraduate days at Anderson University, I feel our bond has grown stronger as the years have passed. I treasure our friendship and always look forward to our New Years travels together. I have shared so much with all of them along this journey. Whether it was through conversations in person or over the phone, I knew that I could always count on one or more of them to make me smile and forget about my dissertation woes. I appreciate all of these strong women more than I can say. And finally, I want to offer thanks to my family, Jerry and Bonnie Kurzen, Ryan and Amber Kurzen, Melanie and Mark Boertje, and Corrine Kurzen, for their love and encouragement over the years. This road has been long and although they often did not vi understand exactly what I was doing all the way down here in Texas, they always offered support and prayers for whatever difficult task I was undertaking. I appreciate their sacrifices, and I share this success with them. While I have been away from home, I have gained five nieces and nephews whom I love and miss very much. I hope that this project and what it represents can be an inspiration to them—Nathan, Addison, Hannah, Paige, and Joshua—the next generation of Kurzens and Boertjes. vii PREFACE In Pursuit of the Autobiographical Life stories have always been an important part of my world. As an inquisitive seventh grader living in a small rural Ohio town, I began to construct my family tree. I wanted to know about the lives of my grandparents’ parents, my great-great aunts, cousins, and those who came before them. I began filling in the blanks with the names of my relatives and became curious about the stories behind those relationships I’d listed. On one occasion, I interviewed my paternal grandfather by asking him to tell me the story of how he proposed to my grandmother. He told me their story in his quiet way, revealing more about my working-class family than I had known up to that point in my life. Later during my junior year in high school, I asked my maternal grandmother about her family’s history as I sat with her only a few years before her death in a nursing home facility. She told me as much as she could remember about her family’s journey from the hills of West Virginia to Holmes County, Ohio, while continually reminding me how proud she was that I was planning to be one of her first grandchildren (out of 65) to attend college. I was careful to record the history of my family and document every name and detail uttered during these encounters, even recording many of my interviews. I asked my parents and grandparents for photographs, too, thinking that these physical artifacts somehow proved the existence of people I would never know personally. In addition to those gathered from family members, I took a few photographs of my own, several of my paternal grandfather’s farm, the place where his grandfather and grandmother originally settled when they came to the United States during the 1800s from Switzerland. I took viii rubbings from my great-grandparents’ tombstones in the country graveyard that still stands less than a mile from where my parents live. I logged the fact that the road on which I grew up bears my family name because of my great-great-grandparents’ courage to settle in a place where no other homes were built. I wanted to make sure I could not only identify, but also understand who and where I came from.