The Unthought known

1128 Words3 Pages

When we are grown up, we come to know many things, but for any variety of reasons, we cannot think about it. There may be things we have forgotten; or have intuition or felt sense for that we sometimes find ourselves desperately struggling to put in words, which the British psychoanalyst, Christopher Bollas called ‘The Unthought known’. Memories of these experiences live in the boundary between our conscious and unconscious mind. It is the stress we feel in our bodies is one of the primary ways to trace and uncover much of the content of this The Unthought Known. Scientifically the unthought known is created-virtually from conception through birth & into our first few years, the brain stores stressful experiences without the benefit of language. Normally, everybody have this trauma in life. Significantly many writers have shown this traumatic experience in their works. Jayne Anne Phillips is one of the well known contemporary Post Modern Feminist writers of American literature. She is the author of several collections of literary pieces and whose works have been translated in twelve languages. To Bollas, unknowingly everything has been inculcated into the memory being as the fetus in the mother’s womb. In the novel ‘Quiet Dell’ Phillips has shown this trauma through two characters. It was written in Oct 13, 2013. It was written based on the true incident happened in Quiet Dell in 1931, West Virginia. “Quiet” means calm; here the place which is known for calmness turns to chaos. The characters Harry and Annabel are intrude by this unthought known. Due to the Great Depression, Dutch immigrants in West Virginia began to advertise for companionship in the matrimonial bureau site called ‘lonely hearts’. By registering in this website... ... middle of paper ... ...”) pg 05. Grandmother used to say that I might find myself upon a stage one day as an actor or the author of a play (pg.03). Throughout the novel in both the characters this trauma can be seen. In Annabel it’s her parents’ positive attitude of life has been stored in her mind and in Harry it’s from his forefathers. In each individual it may be the phantom or unthought known governs. Unknowingly sometimes we are unaware of it and sometimes we know it but we are unspeakable. Works Cited Primary: Phillips, Jayne Anne. Quiet Dell. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc. 2013. Print. Secondary: Robertson, Sarah. The Secret Country. New York: Rodopi.2007.Print. Abraham, Nicholas and Maria Torok. The Shell and the Kernal, trans. Nicholas Rand (2nd edn, London: University of Chicago Press, 1994) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unthought _known

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