Women's Work: Stitching New Identity Narratives in Conflict and Post-Conflict Settings

• Main Author: Semmel, Arielle
• Format: Others
• Published: OpenSIUC 2016
• Subjects: Conflict Transformation; Intercultural Communication; Narrative; Rhetoric; Sewing; Socially Engaged Art
• Online Access: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/1236; https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2240&context=dissertations

Here, I bring communication theories into conversation with peace and conflict scholarship. Specifically, I explore how the ways in which women narrate their experiences of violent conflict through sewing collectives can inform conflict transformation work. I engage in this exploration within the framework of narrative theory, using Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic pentad to analyze the narratives presented in a selection of textile pieces created by women in Chile, South Africa, and Northern Ireland. I situate this project within literature pertaining to feminist approaches to rhetoric, discussions of bridgework in identity negotiation from intercultural communication, concerns related to conflict transformation, and work with socially engaged art. Finally, I bring these analyses into conversation with one another to consider how women rhetors may inform conflict transformation through their textile work. In particular, I discuss how each of these rhetors offers the narrative elements to reconstitute collective identities, providing an avenue toward peace in their own settings.