Date of Award
Spring 6-7-2018
Document Type
Honors Project
University Scholars Director
Dr. Christine Chaney
First Advisor/Committee Member
Dr. Christine Chaney
Second Advisor/Committee Member
Dr. Luke Reinsma
Keywords
Joan Didion, Memory, Affect Theory, Spatiality, Morality, Feminist and Gender Studies
Abstract
This project outlines new and expansive critical categories for discussing Joan Didion’s work through an interrogation of Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and earlier personal essays using an interplay of close reading and affect theory. This paper seeks to help move the critical conversation in new directions by shifting the focus towards an analysis of Didion’s unique spatialization of memory, articulated through her use of particular details. Divided in two parts, the first section of this paper discusses The Year of Magical Thinking while the second engages in a dialogue with the critical voices surrounding Didion, as well as an interrogation of additional essays from Didion’s earlier years as a writer, culminating in an assessment that at the heart of Didion’s methodology is a deeply moral exhumation of what is lost.
Recommended Citation
Martin, Hannah Nicole, "Where Woman Is Her Center: Interrogating Morality and Spatiality in the Works of Joan Didion" (2018). Honors Projects. 77.
https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/honorsprojects/77
Included in
American Literature Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Women's Studies Commons
Comments
A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Scholars Program.