Calhoun, Dana LeTriece
(2022)
In Her Words: Conjuring the Technogothic Archive of Mary Ellen Petty.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
This dissertation examines the everyday writing of Mary Ellen Petty, my great-grandmother, and argues that Black women’s everyday writing is a form of conjuration. Mary Ellen Petty was born on December 25, 1919, and left behind a large corpus of writing after her death in 2005. I use a methodology called Technogothic Conjuring, which is taught by Black Southern Hoodoo spiritual and cultural practices and made unique through application of digital and physical methods that center the subject and researcher. I position myself in the position of the conjure woman, and explain the methods in which conjuring and conjure women brought forth change and healing in Black communities. In this dissertation, I apply Technogothic Conjuring to Mary’s written and physical archive—a collection of journals and documents gifted through the family and the subject of this dissertation. I analyze the Mammy figure, a harmful stereotype against Black women, as a representational bridge between myself and Mary and how my mother’s own collection of Mammy cookie jars taught me a special way of transforming an archive. Using Technogothic Conjuring, I created a digital archive website titled In Her Words, including six months of transcribed journal entries, pictures, and contextual framing of Mary Ellen Petty’s archive to work in the liminal space between life, death, and time. In the process of archival conjuration, I encounter Mary’s archival ghost in her materials and interact with her spirit through her writing and the website creation. This dissertation discusses the method, the process, and the meaning behind conjuring a spirit through archival materials in a digital space.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
| Creators | Email | Pitt Username | ORCID  |
|---|
| Calhoun, Dana LeTriece | dlc89@pitt.edu | dlc89 | |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
13 August 2022 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
28 July 2022 |
| Approval Date: |
4 December 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
4 August 2022 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
224 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > English |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
archive, rhetoric, english |
| Date Deposited: |
04 Dec 2024 16:54 |
| Last Modified: |
04 Dec 2024 18:01 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/43489 |
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