Communication Commons^™

How Should I Fall Apart For You? A Critical Autoethnography Exploring Embodied Trauma, Julie R. Terebkov

Master's Theses

Defining and naming trauma is a layered and nuanced process but hegemonic medical and media discourses have forced trauma into a system of binary terms and categories. This study begins with an exploration of how hegemonic discourses define trauma and how focusing on embodied trauma disrupts the limiting language presently available. I use Lisa Blackman’s (2008) work on embodiment to explore how our bodies move, take on, and shed trauma as a form of disruption to oppressive language. Blackman’s theory is used to examine my own embodied trauma through a critical autoethnography using prose and narrative I developed in narrative …