Rhetorics of Trauma

“The Animal Witness of the Rwandan Genocide.”

by Michael Chaney

“The Animal Witness of the Rwandan Genocide.” In Graphic Subjects: Critical Essays on Autobiography and Graphic Novels, ed. Michael A. Chaney. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011. 93-100.

Understanding Trauma & the Rhetoric of Recovery: A Discourse Analysis of Virtual Healing Journals of Child Sexual Abuse Survivors

by Riki Thompson

Thompson, R. (2004). Understanding Trauma & the Rhetoric of Recovery: A Discourse Analysis of Virtual Healing Journals of Child Sexual Abuse Survivors. JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory- Special Issue, Part 2: Trauma & Rhetoric, 24(3), 653-677.

As survivors engage in the discourse of telling through writing, they rely on a variety of genres to do this work.... more As survivors engage in the discourse of telling through writing, they rely on a variety of genres to do this work. These “typified” survivor narratives—as will be shown through discourse analysis—can be classifiable using Bazerman’s “systems of genre” (1994). Figure 1 illustrates how the healing journal participates in a “genre system” by way of the survivor narrative, along with other genres. The meta-narrative is the discourses of healing, which acts as the ideological framework that all healing discourse participates in. Within the meta-narrative, there are a variety of forums where survivors may go to perform their narratives. Books and websites allow survivors a forum to tell and share through texts. Once a survivor has chosen a place to tell, she must also chose a particular genre, such as poetry or the personal journal. Survivor narratives, therefore, mediate different literary forms in order to produce their own form of the survivor narrative. In this paper, I will examine the website (forum) and the personal journal (form) .