A BI-OPENING ACCOUNT: TRAUMA NARRATIVES IN LIFE-WRITING BY BISEXUAL WOMEN

Author

Gabriella Ann Graceffo

Year of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Individualized Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

English and Psychology

Department or School/College

Department of English

Committee Chair

Katie Kane

Commitee Members

Caitlin Martin-Wagar, Rachel Williamson, Brian Blanchfield, Chris Dombrowski

Keywords

bisexual, experimental forms, life-writing, narratology, queer studies, trauma

Abstract

This dissertation functions as a kind of archive, one that highlights bisexual women’s trauma narratives rather than suppressing them for the sake of a queer utopia. It analyzes key formal approaches trauma narratives can take—experimental memoir and lyric essay, autofiction, and autotheory—with their capacities for dissociation, fragmentary memory, shame withdrawal, author protection, reader engagement, and authenticity. Above all, the six core texts of this dissertation—In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, Creep: Accusations and Confessions by Myriam Gurba, Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq, Black Wave by Michelle Tea, No Archive Will Save You by Julietta Singh, and Tender Points by Amy Berkowitz—exhibit embodiments of trauma, moving beyond simple narration of a sensitive story through their affective engagement of the reader through both form and content. These traumas range from punctual to insidious, individual to collective, underscoring the unique social conditions and chronic stressors bisexual women experience, including objectification, antibisexual discrimination, rape myths, high rates of IPV and sexual violence, negative reactions to disclosure, bisexual invisibility, and correlations with physical disabilities and chronic illnesses.

This project also recognizes the importance of an intermedial, pluralistic approach to literary analysis which does not silo interpretation to one discipline, theory, or philosophy. In that spirit, the dissertation engages deeply with paradigms from both literature and psychology, integrating sources from both fields to support close reading of the core texts and larger investigation of the three literary forms. Just as publishing houses should not pigeonhole authors into one type of trauma narrative for the sake of profit and sensationalism, researchers should not pigeonhole analysis into one field when trauma impacts the construction of identity, requiring a background in both psychology and literature to analyze the representation of the self on the page. This project moves beyond literary critics’ preoccupation with psychoanalysis to instead engage with contemporary psychological studies and trauma models.

Recommended Citation

Graceffo, Gabriella Ann, "A BI-OPENING ACCOUNT: TRAUMA NARRATIVES IN LIFE-WRITING BY BISEXUAL WOMEN" (2025). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12550.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12550