Presentation Title
A Community of Two: Along the Boundary between Author and Reader
Degree Name
Master of Interdisciplinary Studies (MA)
Department
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Location
Tioga Library Building
Start Date
26-5-2014 4:55 PM
End Date
26-5-2014 5:00 PM
Abstract
Speaking of the efficacy of the written word in crafting connections between people, literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin proposed that the readers of a text are—in some ways—also its authors, with the act of reading creating a dialog between a text already written and a text generated through reader response, creating a community of two along the boundary between author and reader. To illustrate that boundary, I am situating myself—through my research—as a responding audience to nineteenth-century Iowa farm wife Emily Hawley Gillespie, as she is revealed through the pages of her thirty-year diary. Through the creative vehicle of fiction, I am entering her text, examining the themes which emerge within her narrative in the light of the life and experiences of my protagonist—a woman who finds the diary while cleaning out the attic of her late uncle’s house. Examining the performances of self-identity formed between author and reader and the sense of community—or things held in common—that develops sight unseen, I will craft the story of a woman who finds herself playing audience to one diarist, while re-creating her own identity in concurrence with audiences she envisions through the crafting of her own text.
During this TAC Talks presentation, I will reflect on the creation of community between the author and her audience and my research regarding life-writing and identity. As a way to enlarge the borders of community, I will also share a brief section of the novel in progress.
COinS
A Community of Two: Along the Boundary between Author and Reader
Tioga Library Building
Speaking of the efficacy of the written word in crafting connections between people, literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin proposed that the readers of a text are—in some ways—also its authors, with the act of reading creating a dialog between a text already written and a text generated through reader response, creating a community of two along the boundary between author and reader. To illustrate that boundary, I am situating myself—through my research—as a responding audience to nineteenth-century Iowa farm wife Emily Hawley Gillespie, as she is revealed through the pages of her thirty-year diary. Through the creative vehicle of fiction, I am entering her text, examining the themes which emerge within her narrative in the light of the life and experiences of my protagonist—a woman who finds the diary while cleaning out the attic of her late uncle’s house. Examining the performances of self-identity formed between author and reader and the sense of community—or things held in common—that develops sight unseen, I will craft the story of a woman who finds herself playing audience to one diarist, while re-creating her own identity in concurrence with audiences she envisions through the crafting of her own text.
During this TAC Talks presentation, I will reflect on the creation of community between the author and her audience and my research regarding life-writing and identity. As a way to enlarge the borders of community, I will also share a brief section of the novel in progress.