Date of Award
Fall 12-2018
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.F.A.
Degree Program
Creative Writing
Department
English
Major Professor
Richard Goodman
Second Advisor
Randy Bates
Third Advisor
John Hazlett
Abstract
A year after Alyssa Milano’s tweet launched the #MeToo movement, survivors of sexual assault are being called ‘accusers’ in the media, and public opinion is swinging in favor of guilty men. #MeToo raised awareness but not understanding. What is rape? What is consent? As evidenced by the #MeToo movement and the backlash against it, clearly, as a society, we don’t know. Contact is a work of Creative Nonfiction that uses scenes and details from the narrator’s personal experiences to illuminate the micro-negotiations that occur in sex and seduction.
In a world where women are still expected to stay small and stay out of the way, where we publicly decry but privately propagate the notion of being 'seen and not heard,' and where to be seen means to be sexualized, this narrator seeks to take up space and make noise. In Contact the personal is political and the political is personal.
Recommended Citation
Stevralia, Christine M., "Contact" (2018). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2535.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2535
Included in
History of Gender Commons, Nonfiction Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Other French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.