I've never had my own blog before, so this should be interesting. After resisting Cheryl's tempting suggestion to call my blog "Rhetoric Slut," (which I really think somebody should do one of these days, esp. someone interested in gender issues), I have decided to use this space to investigate conceptions of victimhood in narrative expressions. As a coping mechanism for my disappointment about having to choose between Freedom of Speech and Narrative Analysis this semester, I have decided to use this class as a space to explore narrative criticism. Specifically, I am interested in studying how contradictory narratives of victimhood (by which I mean narratives in which the so-called "victims" could also be viewed as oppressors or narratives in which two sides of a conflict both define themselves as victims--better definition to come!) arise and operate in discourse between groups in conflict with one another.
Here are my main goals for the near future:
1) To narrow down my specific object(s) of study: The idea for this study came from some topics that I am already familiar with. However, these subjects (The Tea Party movement and the Israeli-Palesitinian conflict) are not what I want to use for this project, partially because I want to learn something new and partially because these topics have been / are being explored by other people inside and outside of our field. Unfortunately, when it comes to topic selection, I tend to be my own worst enemy.
2) To learn more about how narrative criticism: My narrative analysis exposure is pretty limited so far. In my reading, I hope to investigate how it has been used by other scholars: what method(s) they have used, what objects they have studied, what they have found, and what narrative analysis can "contribute" to both the study of rhetoric and the community at large (and, of course, the State of Texas . . . )
Of course, I ultimately want this project to be research that grows out of my own interests, struggles, creativity, and genius, but suggestions (topics, readings, etc.) are most welcome.
The victimhood emphasis seems really smart given prominent themes and voices in contemporary discourse. It would be interesting, perhaps, to track and compare the role of the self in victimhood discourse across multiple eras. In other words, how does the individual play into this talk compared to talk of community now, say compared to the past? The inward turn is discussed a lot in contemporary social theory, but I don't see a strong pull toward that kind of research in rhetorical studies (though I could be missing something). Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteThere is an interesting line of studies here regardless of how the specifics play out, methinks.