Transformation in the Literary Transaction: Relationships Between “Trauma” Texts and Traumatic Histories

• In Event: Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Identity Construction Through Texts

Abstract

There has been little to no analysis in how youth with histories of domestic violence (physical, sexual) navigate literacy learning as they transact ‘trauma texts’ which tell familiar stories of domestic violence. This paper offers an argument that texts like Walker’s (1984) The Color Purple opens sites of discourse (Stallybrass & White, 1986) and for these youth, these ‘sites’ offer transformative possibilities to engage differently with texts, literacies, teachers, and schooling. A counter-argument is also offered that challenges the common belief regarding these youth who are often associated with deficit discourses and related policies (e.g. emotional behavioral disorders) and that literacy acts as suggested in this query opens spaces for different, more generative discourses to emerge.

Authors

• Tracey Pyscher, University of Minnesota

• Anne Crampton, University of Minnesota