'Reflection: The Process of Re/Creating' and 'Oublie / Moi'

Abstract

Content warning: sexual violence.

These two pieces engage with the intersections of the scholarship presented at the 2024 summer school and the author’s personal relational experiences of gendered violence. The reflection explores the uncomfortable contradictions of understanding oneself as an accomplished, intelligent, and independent woman and yet finding those aspects of identity seemingly undermined or even completely erased while in an abusive or toxic relationship; ‘Oublie / Moi’ then uses the genre of found poetry to attempt to translate the affects of living and feeling through those contradictions. Together, this work considers how the violence of such relationships can haunt the survivor even after managing to escape, interrupting their attempts to rebuild their concept of self in the aftermath of its apparent destruction.