Refinement of Research Topic

[Lucia Pawlowski]

Dear David et all,

Yes, as a matter of fact I am currently auditing Foley's Oral Tradition
class here at Missouri-Columbia. I find that where I am learning the most
however about discourse communities is from our folklore department.  This
semester I
decided to concentrate on, with the help of my mentor, Elaine Lawless, the
"gaps" of women's story-telling, and I hope to have this work culminate in
a Lacanian reading of feminine subversion of language.  For my fieldwork I
am actually using my poor MA friends! and recording our linguistic and
converstional/ story-telling patterns to see how even non-traumatic
narratives demonstrate Maurice Blanchot's findings in "The Writing of
Disaster" that the experience narration refers to is unspeakable because
what has been "inscribed" on the flesh (as in physical abuse) cannot be
de-scribed.  It has been shown that women of similar experience
 utilize gaps in narrative (usually right around the climax,
where in the story the event of inscription approaches) to contrast with
their own PRESENCE, not victimization, in the transpiring events.
Operating under the assumption that grad school in itself is not that
traumatic(!), I want to explore if women in my folkgroup are accustomed to
this sort of narrative eventhough the content of our stories are radically
different. If we demonstrate these patterns still, I would investigate
why. Besides that, I am intersted to see how we react to the larger
graduate school culture, if we are subsumed by it or stand apart and
maintain our own distinct sub-group, and how narrative techniques can be
an insight into this. I will elucidate my findings on the listserv as I
continue.  Thank you for making me think of it, David.

Lucia Pawlowski
MA Rhetoric and Composition
U of Missouri-Columbia

Works Cited
Lawless, Elaine. "Transformative Re-membering: De-scribing the Unspeakable
or Re-Visiting Blanchot." unpusblised ms. Panel: Folklore and the
Contemptible.  Oct 21, 1998.

 On Tue, 19 Jan 1999 samuels at anthro.umass.edu wrote:

> Lucia,
>
> Is Missouri-Columbia the home of John Miles Foley?  If so, he might be an
> interesting person to do something with on the discourse/folklore
> intersection front....
>
> Best,
>
> David
>
>
>
>
> David W. Samuels
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 212 Machmer Hall
> University of Massachusetts
> Amherst, MA 01003
>
> VOX: (413) 545-2702
> FAX: (413) 545-9494
> email: samuels at anthro.umass.edu
>
>