Undergraduate Research Hub

This research seeks to examine memoir writing as an extension of expressive writing, which can be used to alleviate the psychosocial e!ects of intergenerational trauma, namely sociocultural dislocation and a lack of agency. With a detailed analysis of two memoirs – In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado and Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner – in relation to the scholarship on intergenerational trauma and writing, I demonstrate that memoir writing can act as a long-form, communal version of expressive writing, which can help a person su!ering from the e!ects of inherited trauma to reclaim their unique narrative and to begin to restore an individual connection to their cultural history. Throughout both works in memoir, the cra" and storytelling choices that Machado and Zauner make allow them to engage with their trauma in a meaningful process of creation, organization, and transformation.