Content area
Abstract
This dissertation calls for and works to create a new awareness of PTSD and of the literature that is crafted to speak to, about, and for PTSD. The first chapter seeks to [re-]define the trauma narrative and to situate these testimonies as vital cultural artifacts both in raising societal awareness to PTSD and in assisting in the recovery process for individual trauma survivors. The second chapter comprises a collection of creative work, trauma literature that ventures to embody and give voice to the traumatic condition. The final chapter addresses and responds to a call to action posed by current scholarship in creative writing pedagogy by proposing an approach to creative writing instruction through trauma theory as an alternative to the standard workshop format in order to promote more critical thinking, more personal investment, and more social consciousness in the classroom. The dissertation as a whole is aware of and invested in an astute comprehension of trauma theory and its implications for survivors as well as for audiences of both readers and writers. The work within promotes understanding and empathy as the foundations of social betterment.
