Date of Award

1-1-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Human Communications

First Advisor

Elizabeth A. Suter, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Erin Willer

Third Advisor

Mary Claire Morr-Serewicz

Keywords

Culture, Disability, Discourses

Abstract

Understanding the meaning making of having an acquired physical disability still remains a mystery today. With more than 20 percent of our total population experiencing some form of disability, this study explores discourses of disability that emerge from participants' life stories. This study interviewed 20 participants using a modified version of McAdams' (1993) Life Story Interview Protocol. Utilizing Relational Dialectics Theory and a thematic discourse analysis, two primary discourses emerged from participant talk. (1) the biomedical discourse of disability and (2) the disability discourse of normalcy. The latter discourse can be broken down even further into (1) the sociolinguistic discourse of disability and (2) the biopolitical discourse of disability.

Called forth through language, these discourses provide a site of analysis to better understand the sense-making that persons with acquired physical disabilities experience as they try and understand what it means to have a disability. From these two discourses, an analysis of language choice sheds insight into meaning-making, while providing unique insight into researching this community.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

Rights holder

Brian L. Grewe Jr.

File size

179 p.

File format

application/pdf

Language

en

Discipline

Communication

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