How I learned French : a memoir

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Authors
Key-Tissot, Joelie Denise
Advisor
Christman, Jill, 1969-
Issue Date
2020-05-02
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (M.A.)
Department
Department of English
Other Identifiers
CardCat URL
Abstract

How I Learned French is a braided memoir about a young person assigned female at birth and presenting as a girl who used a media-fostered dream of living in France as a way to survive Ozarkian transience and squalor. The memoir weaves together snapshots of the challenging childhood, adolescence and young adulthood that made escape necessary; narrative illustrations of the popular mediatic representations that suggested France was the answer; and the metamorphosis they—identifying as non-binary/gender fluid—experienced their first year in France. How I Learned French explores issues of place, class/socioeconomic status, gender, negotiating identities in a foreign language context, culture shock, motivation, mental illness, sexual trauma, power and agency, and the effect of popular culture on expectation/creation of “reality.” The following excerpt includes the first three chapters entitled “Sabrina,” “Bastrop Street” and “Roadblocks.”