I met Dorothy during our BASS Connections project which focused on how expressive writing can help survivors of childhood cancer. Her compassion and genuine interest in other’s stories were constants in our discussions of trauma. I wasn’t surprised at all to learn that she’d channeled this into her English thesis. Dorothy’s thesis, “Narratives of Illness Written by African Authors”, contains three sections: cancer, HIV/AIDS, and mental illness. Each section looks at narratives that show experiences with these illnesses.
Dorothy admits that these three sections explore topics that are all “unique situations, all chronic but each so different.” She says, “The cancer is individualized in a way. Then HIV/AIDS is more societal. And then mental illness is a whole different ballgame.” The differences among these three health conditions allow Dorothy to examine narratives of trauma in general.
When Dorothy was in seventh grade, poetry first illuminated the intersection between narrative and trauma. Poetry helped Dorothy express difficult experiences she had growing up, and she describes it as “a powerful tool” during her youth. Since then, she’s been writing poetry.
Dorothy’s love of writing and reading led her to consider an English major. Dorothy is also pre-med and additionally considered neuroscience or Program II. In the end, she decided that
English would benefit her the most. “I really wanted to learn the skills I would gain in English: critical theory and analysis and writing,” she says. She began “thinking about how you can change perspectives through narratives and see different things.” As she neared senior year, Dorothy wanted to begin a thesis that reflected this concept. She describes her thesis as “inspired by my own experience with poetry in seventh grade and then all my writing since that time. My favorite English classes such as Documentary Studies, Doctor Stories, and Narratives of Migration helped me shape the idea for my thesis.”
As Dorothy began narrowing her thesis idea, she decided to focus on works written by African authors. As an immigrant from Ghana, she recognized that “African literature is not as often engaged with in theorizing of illness narratives, at least in my personal experience” The primary works Dorothy explores are Age of Iron by J. M. Coetzee, Nobody Ever Said AIDS, Sudden Flowers by Eric Gottesman, and Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey through Depression by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah. Dorothy’s thesis engages with these different texts to understand how illness shapes the narratives being told.
When Dorothy decided on her thesis topic, she reached out to a professor with whom she’d never had a class: Tsitsi Jaji. Professor Jaji is Zimbabwean American, so Dorothy felt she would contribute a valuable perspective. Throughout Dorothy’s research, Professor Jaji has served as a fountain of knowledge. In addition to Jaji’s constant supply of resources, Dorothy has also expressed that “her encouragement and reminders that I am doing important work” have helped her just as much.
Dorothy admits that even though she has found the thesis process rewarding, implementing an independent plan can be difficult. Through the thesis-writing process, she has learned how to lay out a weekly plan and has discovered the benefits of timelines.
One of Dorothy’s hesitations as she’s developed her thesis and reevaluated her title is the tendency of people to view the African continent as a country. While all her authors are African, she hopes to frame her thesis to clarify that they come from three specific countries with key distinct historical experiences. Dorothy hopes that her thesis can undermine this mentality rather than reinforce it.
When Dorothy reflects on her thesis, she says, “As someone who wants to go into medicine in the future this work is important to me. One of the ways to understand people’s stories is through reading literature, being able to immerse yourself in the narrative of somebody else. This is what I find key about illness narrative.” One of Dorothy’s goals is for her thesis to reflect the importance of narrative in medicine.
Dorothy will complete her thesis work in the Spring semester of 2020. She looks forward to continuing to explore the importance of narrative in medical school.
English Department
