Article
Family Matters: Incest and Trauma in Memoirs of Abigail Abbot Bailey
Literature in the Early American Republic
(2012)
Abstract
Sexual trauma appears in Memoirs of Abigail Abbot Bailey (1815), arguably the first autobiographical chronicle of incest published in the United States. Breaking new ground in an attempt to understand Bailey's foundational American incest text and Abigail Bailey herself through current critical trauma discourse, this reading is central to considerations of the history of American trauma narratives, as well as to an increasing knowledge regarding women, the domestic, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Publication Date
December, 2012
Publisher Statement
The only scholarly journal devoted solely to the study of the literary culture of the fledgling United States, Literature in the Early American Republic (LEAR) is a peer-reviewed scholarly annual that promotes discussion of all facets of the literature that arose during the period roughly spanning from the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 to the death of James Fenimore Cooper in 1851.
Citation Information
Laura Laffrado. "Family Matters: Incest and Trauma in Memoirs of Abigail Abbot Bailey" Literature in the Early American Republic Vol. 5 (2012) p. 129 - 161 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/laura-laffrado/7/