Bridge Freezes Before Roadway [and] Storytelling as a vehicle for interpreting self/cultural violation and transformation: The Dine and a Bilagaana woman (With original writing)

This Contextual Essay serves as academic support for, and commentary on, the creative project, Bridge Freezes Before Roadway. The literature review is integrated into the body of the contextual essay as an exploration of creative writing as a vehicle for discovering self-identity. The contextual essay also offers and explores a new literary theory termed fragmentalism. This is the basic application of the non-delineated and fragmented thought that occurs during and/or after trauma to the creative writing and literature one examines or creates post-trauma. While the violence in and of itself creates fragmentation, the utter randomness and unpredictability that characterizes the life of a survivor of trauma is also a powerful factor. This unpredictability creates a fragmented perception of experiences. The reasonably safe and secure life that non-victims live is not the same world in which a victimized person exists. Therefore, the writing and reading of a post-trauma person is seen through a prism of ever-changing unpredictability and radical vulnerability.; The creative component of this dissertation or Project Demonstrating Excellence is a narrative collage and includes: fiction, creative non-fiction and short personal essay, poetry and excerpts from a lifetime of diaries and journals. It is an example of storytelling/creative writing as a vehicle for the exploration of self-identity and self-acceptance. The writing covers several voices, years, and journeys. It allows the reader to explore the uncertainty, anger, emptiness, loneliness and the moments of clarity and joy that one may experience in the aftermath of trauma.; While there are many forms of trauma, this work explores the aftermath of a childhood of incest, torture, and rape and the parallel experience of the American Indian colonization and its consequences. While I see many parallels between my efforts and those of the American Indian to use writing as a vehicle to reclaim identities lost due to trauma or due to others telling our stories for us, I greatly respect the Dine (Navajo) culture in which I spent time and therefore have made no attempt in my creative project to speak for them.