Written Communication Jan 2022

“God’s Absence During Trauma Took Its Toll”: Dialogic Tracing of Literate Activity and Lifespan Trajectories of Semiotic (Un)becoming

Ryan Ware University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

Scholarship on trajectories of becoming with literate activities is of growing interest in Writing Studies, particularly in accounts of writing grounded in cultural-historical and dialogic approaches, and in lifespan accounts of writing. The research reported here contributes to those conversations by tracing trajectories of becoming that are dynamically nonlinear, necessarily messy, and predicated on exceptionally complex streams of times, places, life experiences, artifacts, and literate activities. I draw from one case study with Alex, once a deeply faithful Christian who, over complex trajectories of semiotic becoming, lost her faith and was left to make sense of drastic perspectival shifts, in large part, through literate activity. Weaving analyses of talk across 2 years, 15 interviews, and multiple texts and textual interactions, I trace a narrative of Alex’s trajectories of unbecoming/becoming. I argue that Writing Studies needs flexible, theoretically grounded methods to trace becoming across lifespan trajectories and I address this imperative by showcasing one approach— dialogic animation protocols coupled with dialogic analyses.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2022-01-01
DOI
10.1177/07410883211051969
Open Access
Closed
Topics
qualitative research multimodality race and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

  1. Wang et al. (2025)
    Getting to “the Upper End of the Novice Zone”: An Exploration of Doctoral Stude…
    Written Communication
  2. Ware et al. (2024)
    Tracing Discursive Turbulence as Intra-active Pedagogical Change and Becoming
    Written Communication
  3. Lindenman et al. (2024)
    A Taxonomy of Life Writing: Exploring the Functions of Meaningful Self-Sponsore…
    Written Communication
  4. Karsten (2024)
    Voices in Dialogue: Taking Polyphony in Academic Writing Seriously
    Written Communication

Cites in this index (8)

  1. Olinger (2020)
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    Written Communication
  2. Durst (2019)
    Disciplinarity and Literate Activity in Civil and Environmental Engineering: A …
    Written Communication
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Also cites 15 works outside this index ↓
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CrossRef global citation count: 5 View in citation network →

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