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Believing Mary Karr

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Illinois State University ISU ReD: Research and eData Theses and Dissertations 4-27-2017 Believing Mary Karr Stephanie Rae Guedet Illinois State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, Religion Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Guedet, Stephanie Rae, "Believing Mary Karr" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 733. https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/733 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ISU ReD: Research and eData. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ISU ReD: Research and eData. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BELIEVING MARY KARR Stephanie R. Guedet 224 Pages Believing Mary Karr examines how belief, represented in the memoirs of Mary Karr, works in our contemporary moment. This examination is supported by the argument that our identities and the stories we tell about them are always constructions of belief, and that these beliefs are ultimately relational, enacted in the intersubjective relationship between writers and readers of autobiography. This dissertation provides the fields of both rhetoric and life writing studies not only an awareness of how ideas about belief—how beliefs about belief—have already shaped our scholarly imagination but also the possibilities a rhetoric of belief can offer to future conversations about what it means to read and write autobiography in America today. Engaging theorists such as Graham Ward, Paul Ricoeur, Jessica Benjamin, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler, this dissertation examines various beliefs, both sacred and secular, represented in Karr’s The Liars’ Club, Cherry, Lit, and The Art of Memoir. Believing Mary Karr suggests that stories of belief, epitomized by Mary Karr’s memoirs, offer readers an embodied experience that operates through the expectant affects of desire and hope and that also forms, re-forms, and transforms their own structures of believing. Thus, such narratives reveal their power on at least two levels. Individually, they invite us to reconsider the role of belief in our own lives. Collectively, they hold the potential to reinscribe pervading cultural myths by acknowledging how beliefs help create shared worlds. KEYWORDS: Rhetoric, Life writing, Mary Karr, Belief, Memoir BELIEVING MARY KARR STEPHANIE R. GUEDET A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY 2017 © 2017 Stephanie R. Guedet BELIEVING MARY KARR STEPHANIE R. GUEDET COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Amy E. Robillard, Chair Susan Kim Brian Rejack ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Out of great suffering come great truths—not just intellectual concepts, but ideas informed by feeling. The word passion comes from the Latin passio, which refers to Jesus's suffering on the cross. Anytime you take a stranger's agony into your body, you're changed by it, refined into a vessel better able to give and receive love, which is the sole purpose of being alive. The best memoirs I've ever read deliver such salvation. —Mary Karr It is both an honor and a pleasure to acknowledge all of the people who have accompanied me on this journey, whose ideas, inspiration, support, and voices are evident on every single page. I cannot imagine a project more personal than a dissertation, and this one in particular is a direct reflection of a number of very special persons. First and foremost, thank you to my committee, without whom this dissertation couldn’t have happened. Dr. Susan Kim, for her amazing linguistic prowess and insightful suggestions. To Dr. Brian Rejack, who joined the team enthusiastically and whose thoughtful connections have already given me lots of ideas for future projects. “Dr. Susan” and “Dr. Brian,” your interdisciplinary perspectives have enriched this dissertation in so many ways. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I also wish to thank Dr. Rebecca Saunders, who taught me how my obsession with hermeneutics could inform my work in rhetoric. Also for many lovely writing retreats in Hyde Park. To my PhD Pal, Debbie Parker, whose numerous conversations about faith and learning and rhetoric and life writing and life are echoing throughout this project. So many more thanks and in no particular order: to my aunt Sharon (Dr. Weiss!) who has served as my educational mentor and professional role model throughout my life, who informed me years ago, as she was preparing to walk across the stage at ISU to receive her doctorate, that someday I would be, too. To my mom and dad, Terry and Pat Guedet, who taught me how to believe and who believe in me. To Alexis Presseau Maloof, who was there at the very beginning i and the very end, whose brilliant mind and beautiful faith inspire me always. To Amy Sponsler Meyer, who literally walked through this project with me, step-by-step, and whose incredible encouragement and wisdom support me daily. To Tiffany Wyse-Fisher, whose scathingly brilliant ideas, creativity, and generosity fuel my spirit. To Denise Goforth, who helped me find the parts of myself that are revealed in these pages and love those parts and whose genuine interest in this project sustained me. To Stu, Elizabeth, Megz, Dawn, Brett, Sarah M-S, B4, all my fabulous friends, whose timely encouragement and silly adventures made the process memorable. To Dr. James Decker—mentor, cheerleader, confidante, love—your tireless conversations, revisions, meals, and encouragement supported me for these six and half years. Without you, this wouldn’t have happened. Thank you for making my dream possible, my dreams possible, in so many ways. Finally, to Dr. Amy E. Robillard, the illustrious Dr. Amy, who deserves the credit for this dissertation. Your mentorship—your friendship—has unalterably shaped my scholarship and my life. The gift you’ve given me through your brilliant expertise, your indefatigable support, your gorgeous essaying, and all the things can never be returned. However, this dissertation is my attempt to do just that. This is for you, pal. And for my beloved grandmother, Dorothy Guedet, who first taught me to love words. Who would have loved this. S. R. G. ii CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i CONTENTS iii CHAPTER I: SINGULAR STORIES IN A COLLECTIVE WORLD: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE AND THE RHETORICS OF BELIEF 1 What Makes Stories Believable? 1 A Rhetoric of Belief 10 What Belief Is: A Historical/Cultural Perspective 13 What Belief Does: A Contemporary Rhetoric of Belief 18 How Beliefs Spread: Narrative and Autobiography 26 Belief and Life Writing Studies 28 My Own Beliefs: A Brief Acknowledgment 37 Chapter Overview 44 CHAPTER II: WORDS CAN SAVE YOU: LANGUAGE, STORY, AND BELIEF IN THE LIARS' CLUB 47 Logology and Divine Logos 51 Belief and Religion 54 Belief in Belief 57 Belief and Modern Literature 58 Of Poetry and Prayer 63 Belief in Literature 65 Belief in Religion 71 The Old and the New 78 CHAPTER III: (RE)TURNING TO HER SAME SELF: MARY KARR'S CONVERSION AND FOUCAULT'S ASKESIS 93 The Converted Self of Autobiography 97 Foucault on Conversion: Self Care v. Self Denial 101 The Conversion of Mary Karr 108 Reading Lit as Christian Conversion: Salvation of a ‘Sinner’ 109 Karr’s Conversion as Askesis 120 iii CHAPTER IV: MEMOIR AS MAKING BELIEF: DESIRE, RELATIONSHIP, AND POIESIS IN MARY KARR'S CHERRY 131 Desire and the Transmission of Affect 137 The Relationship between the Narrated “I” and Autobiographical Characters 145 The Relationship between Narrators, Characters, and Readers 153 Sharing Desire between Writer and Readers 158 CHAPTER V: READING, WRITING, TEACHING MEMOIR: TOWARD A RADICAL PEDAGOGY OF PASSION 174 Pedagogy and Belief 175 The Art of Being Believed 183 Narrative and Empathy 191 The Schooling of Empathy 200 CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION 206 WORKS CITED 210 iv CHAPTER I SINGULAR STORIES IN A COLLECTIVE WORLD: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE AND THE RHETORICS OF BELIEF Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. —St. Augustine of Hippo To understand is to understand one’s life in front of the text. —Paul Ricoeur If philosophy is defined as inquiry into certain truth, then what I pursue here is not philosophy but rhetoric: the art of discovering warrantable beliefs and improving those beliefs in shared discourse. —Wayne C. Booth What Makes Stories Believable? A few months ago, Bob the cat disappeared. After almost eighteen years of living a relatively posh lifestyle with my parents, Bob, on an increasingly rare trip outside, simply never returned home. It was only a couple of days before my parents gave up hope and put away his food bowl and litter box. Considering Bob’s particular feline tendencies, absences—even up to three days or so—were not uncommon. However, with his impending old age, they had grown less and less frequent. He had learned to appreciate the comforts that came with aging, just like my parents—a cozy chair, the remote control, heat, pillows. Once a vicious street fighter who protected his realm with vigilance, Bob no longer cared as much when the occasional squirrel, bunny, or even neighborhood cat roamed his yard. These days he preferred naps on my dad’s lap to a nocturnal rumble. It hadn’t always been, and he had the battle scars to prove it. His tabby coat was perpetually covered in dirt; he was missing half an ear and his entire tail. When my 1 parents caught his tail in the garage door, an accident that required a complete amputation, we joked that he was living up to his name. Bob held an unusual place in our family’s history of pets, and an even more rare spot in my dad’s heart, especially for a cat.
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