Haunted Houses, Haunted Memories: Embodiment, Reproduction, and Storytelling

Undergraduates: Hallie French, n/a n/a n/a n/a

Faculty Advisor: GerShun Avilez
Department: English & Comparative Literature

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Bettina Judd, an African American poet, writes in her book Patient of her harrowing experience of being ignored by her doctors and finally losing one of her ovaries as a result. In her poem ¿¿¿In 2006 I had an Ordeal with Medicine¿¿¿ Judd writes, ¿¿¿I had an ordeal with medicine and was found innocent or guilty. It feels the same because I live in a haunted house. A house can be a dynasty, a bloodline, a body.¿¿¿ Her poetry, however, is not just about her own experience, but is rather also an exploration of the ways in which African American women¿¿¿s bodies have been exploited, ignored, and abused by the medical profession throughout American history. Using Judd¿¿¿s framework of body, bloodline, and dynasty I have launched a yearlong thesis project on the relationship between African American women, stories, the past, and medicine in the works of late twentieth century African American women writers.Many of those works endeavor to reclaim the past and remember the bodily experiences of the women that came before them. By consistently thinking through that painful past each author works to unravel the threads of history and explore the present. I am interested in answering why these writers have chosen to brutally and consistently write history on the backs of their female characters.