Statement of the Problem Trauma studies' growth can be accredited to its familiarity with the major enduring effects of traumatic experience on individuals. In stressing the suffering of different groups of marginalized peoples (for example, oppressed women, war veterans, victims of genocide, the sexually or physically abused, and the terminally ill), trauma studies focus on those whom are often forgotten. It emphasizes the significance of addressing the wounds of the psyche in order to recover. Cathy Caruth argues that trauma, rather than separating and dividing different peoples, "trauma itself may provide the very link between cultures" ("Trauma and Experience" 11). Petar Ramadanovic claims that literature is uniquely placed to perform …show more content…
Literature, in other words, because of its sensible and representational character, because of its figurative language, is a channel and a medium for a transmission of trauma which does not need to be apprehended in order to be present in a text or…in order to be witnessed. (19). Literature is central to trauma studies because it is a key mode to which trauma victims frequently take recourse in order to process their experiences. Furthermore, the intersection of trauma and fiction offers new avenues for the literary imagination. Anne Whitehead writes in her book Trauma Fiction that: Fiction itself has been marked or changed by its encounter with trauma. Novelists have frequently found that the impact of trauma can only adequately be represented by mimicking its forms and symptoms, so that temporality and chronology collapse, and narratives are characterized by repetition and indirection. Trauma fiction overlaps with and borrows from both postmodern and postcolonial fiction in its self-conscious deployment of stylistic devices as modes of reflection or critique. (3) This suggests that literature may provide a valuable imaginary space for those who wish to explore the traumatic experiences of others and their impact on …show more content…
Tim O’Brien (William Timothy O’Brien Jr.) was born on October 1st, 1946 in Austin, Minnesota, spending his early life there until 1956, when he and his family moved to Worthington, Minnesota, near the Iowa border. His parents were both World War II veterans; his father was in the Navy, serving on a destroyer off the coasts of Okinawa and Iwo Jima during the two major Pacific campaigns; his mother was working in a hospital. O’Brien grew up listening to his father’s numerous personal war stories and had a traditional all-American childhood and adolescence, with baseball, girls, and high school
Before O’Brien was drafted into the army, he had an all American childhood. As talked about “His mother was an elementary school teacher, his father an insurance salesman and sailor in World War II” (O’Brien). He spent his tour of duty from 1969 to 1970 as a foot soldier. He was sent home when he got hit with a shrapnel in a grenade attack. O’Brien says as the narrator, “As a fiction writer, I do not write just about the world we live in, but I also write about the world we ought to live in, and could, which is a world of imagination.” (O’Brien)
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
Trauma is a disturbing experience that causes deep stress and possible anxiety. Traumatic incidents are thought to involve victimization. Examples of traumatic events range from witness, physical attack, emotional or sexual child abuse, to the sudden death or disabling illness of a loved one. Traumatic events in particular, possibly leads to a multitude of symptoms, including depression, guilt and obsessive thought about the victimization experience. Trauma and the body can be perceived in a literary context in Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Jean Rhys’s, Wide Sargasso Sea and Danticat’s, The Farming of Bones.
The character, Tim O’Brien, plays a very important part in “How to Tell a True War Story.” Here is a quote from Tim O’Brien in the story. "It happened nearly twenty years ago, but I sti...
2.1 Demonstrate understanding of the differences in the perception and expression of trauma in relation to intersections of diversity with families and other populations.
Many experience historical trauma response, which is the grief they feel due to the trauma amongst the people
When reading we often harness particular threads of thought or lenses of critique to gain entry into the implied historic or legendary nature of literature. To accurately process a tale in the light in which it is presented, one must consider the text from multiple viewpoints. Taking into consideration the psychological circumstances of the presenter/author/narrator, we can get a view into how our personal experiences can create bias in interpretation. By placing the elements of the story into the web of relationships used to interpret the external world, we bring a view of the text from the external perspective. All of these factors are at play in the relations between the perspective within a text, creating a form of reality with its own historic and mythic properties. Characters have their own histories and structures, expressed or not, and their perception in the fictional world they reside exerts influence outward to the reader of literature. This influence can create a sense of immersive reality that renders the reading experience to be mythic truth, based in facts but not emotion or direct perception, a somewhat distanced portrayal of events. However it can also be an expression of perceptive truth, events are experienced much they would be in real life – confusing and disjointed. To look into these problems of perspective, I will use examples from “The Red Convertible” by Lois Erdrich to demonstrate how Lyman’s narration style is representative of psychoanalytic concepts, showing how he deals with the situations presented in his life.
Tim O’Brien holds a unique ability to show the realities of everyday life for many veterans. When you listen to him speak you get a feel of what it is like to be a soldier at war, not only ment...
...hich is about 238,000 people a year. Of all of these cases, 60% are never reported. A shocking two-thirds of these accounts of rape were committed by someone the person knew. As well as abuse, child abuse is an issue of today. About 70% of these children are under four years old about many never receive the help they need. There is also a tie between physical, sexual and emotional abuse in families that have a lower income of less than $1,500 a year. Over the last few years, abuse and murder have started to decrease, but they are no where closer to ending. However, while Joyce Carol Oates wrote a majority of her books from the 60’s to the 2000s, murder and abuse were at their peak. In reading Oates’s novels from this time period, one can see the real tragedy of so many Americans have faces, many who were unable to find a voice to express what was happening to them.
The texts comment on how society prolongs the effects of trauma and how individuality can affect one’s place and sense of belonging in
Octavia Butler depicts how trauma not only affects the slave 's, but the slaveholders. Butler also brings attention to adaptation in her work by using a key literary devices such as foreshadowing to expose the trauma and the cause of that trauma.
With the use of a fictitious literary outlet, Atwood is able to connect with the reader and make them reconsider the unjust treatment of rape victims that still occurs today.
In the production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, trauma played a huge role in the lives of some of the characters. Characters such as Hamlet, Ophelia and even Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude displayed effects of trauma within this production. Trauma is defined as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. Brooke Sanders came and explained how people are affected by traumatic events in their life time whether it has to do with death, family issues, or just dealing with issues in life, period.
In both Sophie Hardcastle's "Below Deck" and Sarah Polley's "Women Talking," trauma is intricately depicted as a pervasive force that changes the protagonists' lives and experiences, providing a major thematic bridge across their stories. Both works delve into the raw and often horrifying aftermath of terrible events, using vivid storytelling techniques and deep character reflection to show not only the immediate effects but also the lasting, long-term effects on the characters. In the novel “Below Deck,” Hardcastle characterises a young woman facing a silent and powerful wave of trauma. Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” discloses the collective suffering and numbness of a group of women in the remote and isolated Mennonite community. By incorporating trauma into their stories, both authors highlight the fundamental battle for healing and the
Moglen, Helene. The Trauma of Gender: A Feminist Theory of the English Novel. Los Angeles, CA: U of California P, 2001.