| dc.description.abstract | What are the techniques with which an author of life writing covering the topics of war, genocide, or political distress can combat the compassion fatigue, desensitization, and general indifference their readership may face in reading about these topics? By examining memoirs, diaries, and letters written by people who lived through the Bosnian War (1992 – 1995) and its immediate aftermath, this thesis details specific rhetorical strategies effective authors use and examines how, in a world in which continuous turnover of the news cycle means that seemingly nothing has staying power, an author must employ such strategies in their writing in order to combat the difficulty of grabbing a reader’s attention and holding it long enough to have an impact on them or get a point across. Results of the research point to the effectiveness of authorial strategies that work to elicit reader attention. Examples include the power difference between the concepts of “knowing” and “not knowing,” the use of visuals (portraits of people, photographs of important locations or objects with sentimental value, drawings, and graphic memoirs), appeals to a reader’s emotions, and understanding authors’ purposes in writing. | en |
