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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until June 01, 2028

ETD Abstract Container

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The Befores & Afters: A Memoir

Rose-Marie, Morgan
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1678447855763809

Abstract Details

, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, English (Arts and Sciences).
In this lyrical childhood memoir, I reconstruct my experience of my parent’s explosive divorce. The manuscript begins and ends in court, where at 12 I testified I no longer wanted to continue my relationship with my father. It is a moment that exists outside of linear time for me. To mimic the experience of trauma, I loop back to this scene throughout the book, each time getting closer to the moment I speak my truth. Between these courtroom sections, I flash back (and forward) to examine the relationship I had with both my parents and the relationship they had with each other, trying to make what sense I can of the way things fell apart. Written from the perspective of my younger self, I elevate the child’s voice because, during all this, that voice was often not counted. As subtly as possible to avoid disrupting the reader’s occupation of the child’s point of view, I invite my adult perspective when necessary to provide context or future insight. At its heart, this book seeks to show that, while lacking language or the ability to articulate an experience, a child is a full person whose experience of situations is no less complex or human than that of the adults around her.
Eric LeMay (Committee Chair)
Patricia Stokes (Committee Member)
Patrick O'Keeffe (Committee Member)
Carey Snyder (Committee Member)
133 p.
Composition; Fine Arts; Gender; Language Arts; Literature; Modern Literature
memoir; lyrical memoir; childhood memoir; lyrical childhood memoir; lyric memoir; child voice; divorce; embodiment; gender; Virginia Woolf; marginal voices; young adult; feminism; feminist; modernist; modernism;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rose-Marie, M. (2023). The Befores & Afters: A Memoir [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1678447855763809

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rose-Marie, Morgan. The Befores & Afters: A Memoir. 2023. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1678447855763809.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rose-Marie, Morgan. "The Befores & Afters: A Memoir." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1678447855763809

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1678447855763809
© 2023, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.