Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Memoir and (Not So) Radical Empathy: Using Literature to Address Addiction
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
The process of sharing one's own story provides therapeutic experience for writers who have endured trauma. As for readers, research shows that one of the most important uses of literature is to incite empathy. This powerful relationship between writer and reader is perhaps at its strongest in the space of the memoir, orienting readers in the embodied experience of another human—even a human experience the reader is resistant to understand. Because of this, memoirs offer us an opportunity to address substance use disorder from another side. In this paper, I explore how addiction memoirs can be used as educational tool for emotional intelligence, reframing the harmful and ill-informed narrative surrounding addiction in Appalachia (and beyond). I assert that by engaging with addiction memoirs and analyzing the language narrators use to discuss their experiences that we may gain a deeper understanding of those suffering, somewhere far beyond the overdose statistics, the crime reports, and the mug shots that infiltrate daily media.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
KRISTIN JANAE STEELE is a native of central Appalachia. Her recent writing appears in Cagibi, The Seventh Wave, and Still: The Journal, among others. She currently lives in Huntington, West Virginia and is a faculty member in the English Department at Marshall University where she teaches courses in creative writing, addiction studies, and Appalachian literature. She received her MFA in creative writing from The New School in New York City.
Memoir and (Not So) Radical Empathy: Using Literature to Address Addiction
The process of sharing one's own story provides therapeutic experience for writers who have endured trauma. As for readers, research shows that one of the most important uses of literature is to incite empathy. This powerful relationship between writer and reader is perhaps at its strongest in the space of the memoir, orienting readers in the embodied experience of another human—even a human experience the reader is resistant to understand. Because of this, memoirs offer us an opportunity to address substance use disorder from another side. In this paper, I explore how addiction memoirs can be used as educational tool for emotional intelligence, reframing the harmful and ill-informed narrative surrounding addiction in Appalachia (and beyond). I assert that by engaging with addiction memoirs and analyzing the language narrators use to discuss their experiences that we may gain a deeper understanding of those suffering, somewhere far beyond the overdose statistics, the crime reports, and the mug shots that infiltrate daily media.
