Leiden University Student Repository

Dam, Fabiënne van (2024)

“Speaking the ‘Unspeakable’: Reimagining Trauma Representation in Contemporary American Women’s Literature”

Master thesis | Educatie in de Taal en cultuurwetenschappen: Engels (120 EC) (MA)

This thesis explores how contemporary female American authors Amber Smith and Kate Elizabeth Russell employ narrative structures to portray the complexities of individual trauma within The Way I Used to Be (2015) and My Dark Vanessa (2023) respectively. It does so by drawing on Joshua Pederson's new model of trauma theory, which calls for a shift in the ways that critics engage with representations of trauma. Pederson's framework actively challenges the traditional beliefs of the first wave of trauma theorists, who mainly believe that trauma can only be represented through three established tropes: (1) absence/silence, (2) indirection, and (3) repetition and return. By embracing Pederson's call for a revaluation of traditional approaches to trauma representation in literature, this thesis demonstrates how both novels challenge conventional methods by directly representing trauma through detailed, as well as explicit language.

trauma theory

Author

Dam, Fabiënne van

Faculty

ICLON

Supervisors

P.T.M.G. Liebregts

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en