Evocative Experiments in Non-Fiction Representation and Identity Constuction in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee and Jacqueline Goss' Stranger Comes to Town

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

Second Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Johnson, Robert

Keywords

Identity Construction, Experimental Non-Fiction, Documentary, Autobiography

Area of Concentration

Cultural Studies

Abstract

This thesis theorizes and analyzes experimental works of non-fiction that actively engage their own constructedness and also work to construct identity in alternative ways. Specifically, I focus on how representation is enacted and how identity is configured within Theresa Hak Kyung Cha�s 1982 autobiography/autoethnography Dictee and Jacqueline Goss� 2006 experimental documentary Stranger Comes to Town. I explore these experimental texts in order to make visible the ways in which their approaches to representing the historical world generate new possibilities for rethinking more dominant modes of constructing identity and enacting non-fictional representation. This thesis argues that Dictee and Stranger Comes to Town demonstrate a movement toward an "evocative" mode of representation and identity construction. Evocation rejects transparent, descriptive, and authenticating approaches to representation that constructions identity as whole, authentic, and as on a teleological trajectory. Evocation engages the constructedness of re-presentations and leaves the viewer/reader with a suggestion of some part the historical world through a more indirect means. Avoiding teleological constructions of identity, evocation instead utilizes techniques like fragmentation to construct identity in alternative ways. Dictee and Stranger Comes to Town demonstrate the usefulness of the concept of evocation in attempting to theorize experimental works of non-fiction.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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