Degree Name
MALS (Master of Arts in Liberal Studies)
Program
Liberal Studies
Date of Award
12-2020
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Marie Tedesco
Committee Members
Amber E. Kinser, Andrew F. Herrmann
Abstract
The author contends that narratives, shaped not only by events but also by socioeconomic and geographic factors, are narratives that require exploration and analysis because these narratives build the lives in which individuals exist. By understanding narratives passed down with which they have built their lives, individuals can come to greater understanding of the narratives in which they live. To understand the narratives, he created and continues to craft about his life, the author needed to understand his narrative inheritance. When a proposed thesis study imploded, the focus of the study shifted to exploring the circumstances of a single interview with the author’s father. By examining methodology as originally intended and subsequently executed, setting the narrative in the proper historical context, and exploring relevant literature on oral history and autoethnography, the author crafted an evocative autoethnographical account of a complex father-son relationship.
Document Type
Thesis - embargo
Recommended Citation
Townsend, Thomas, "“We Didn’t Have a Lot of Money, We Worked Hard, and We Ate Beans”: Examining the Narrative Inheritance From an Appalachian Father to His Son" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3815. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3815
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Oral History Commons, Other Communication Commons, Rural Sociology Commons