Date of Award
1-6-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Rhetoric and Writing
First Advisor
Heidi Skurat Harris
Abstract
Memoir writers are usually survivors of some sort of ordeal, and they may have struggled to overcome race, class, or economic issues just to mention a few issues that may have prompted a memoir. The struggle they faced in the past and the success they have garnered keep them hovering above their pasts. In other words, memoir writers do not want to fully return to their pasts even though they are writing about the past. Instead, memoir writers want to show how far they have come from the past by writing in their grown-up, or educated, voices. The aim in this thesis is to show how dialect can be accurately represented in nonfiction, that dialect is a part of one’s culture just as is race, gender, and social class, and that dialect is a rhetorical art of persuasive writing in creating a character’s identity.
Recommended Citation
Speer, Sheila, "Watch Me Make Her Dance: Stepping Out of the Round of Abuse" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 917.
https://research.ualr.edu/etd/917
