Consuming Katrina

Public Disaster and Personal Narrative

By: Kate Parker Horigan

Narrated by: Sarah Nessel

In Consuming Katrina: Public Disaster and Personal Narrative, author Kate Parker Horigan shows how the public understands and remembers large-scale disasters like Hurricane Katrina, outlining which stories are remembered and why, as well as the impact on public memory and the survivors themselves.

Horigan discusses unique contexts in which personal narratives about the storm are shared, including interviews with survivors. In each case, survivors initially present themselves in specific ways, counteracting negative stereotypes that characterize their communities. However, when adapted for public presentation, their stories get reduced back to those stereotypes. As a result, people affected by Katrina continue to be seen in limited terms, as either undeserving or incapable of managing recovery.

This project is rooted in Horigan's experiences living in New Orleans before and after Katrina, but it is also a case study illustrating an ongoing problem and an innovative solution: survivors' stories should be shared in a way that includes their own engagement with the processes of narrative production, circulation, and reception. When survivors are seen as agents in their own stories, they will be seen as agents in their own recovery. Having a better grasp on the processes of narration and memory is critical for improved disaster response because the stories that are most widely shared about disaster determine how communities recover.

The book is published by University Press of Mississippi. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2018 University Press of Mississippi (P)2022 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"An important and compelling book about Hurricane Katrina in particular and trauma narrative in general." (Amy Shuman, Ohio State University)

"Everyone who wonders how disaster survivors feel when others retell their stories needs to read this book." (Carl Lindahl, founder of the International Commission on Survivor-Centered Disaster Response)