City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2014 Provisional Fictions: Discontinuous Selves and the Making of Meaning Tara Roeder Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/275 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] PROVISIONAL FICTIONS: DISCONTINUOUS SELVES AND THE MAKING OF MEANING by TARA ROEDER A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 ii © 2014 TARA ROEDER All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Meena Alexander ______________________ __________________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Mario DiGangi ______________________ __________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Meena Alexander Sondra Perl Joshua Wilner THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract PROVISIONAL FICTIONS: DISCONTINUOUS SELVES AND THE MAKING OF MEANING by Tara Roeder Advisor: Meena Alexander My project is an exploration of trauma-based meaning-making practices and reader response across a variety of sites. By teasing out some of the complex connections among trauma, narrative, and audience that may occur in spaces ranging from non-linear memoir to courtroom testimony to the writing classroom, I engage with the inherently dialogic nature of making meaning from trauma, and examine some of the ways in which women who engage in recursive, embodied rhetorical practices can productively disrupt conventional expectations of the function of trauma narratives.