This MA Thesis discusses the way in which Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing represent the notion of the transmission of the traumas of slavery. Both Beloved and Homegoing represent...Show moreThis MA Thesis discusses the way in which Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing represent the notion of the transmission of the traumas of slavery. Both Beloved and Homegoing represent the notion that traumas need to be narrated, and witnessed by others, or they will continue to have a negative impact on multiple generations, not only the generations of the present, but also those of the future. They do, however, differ significantly in the way in which they portray the notion of transmission of trauma. In Beloved, Denver is mostly traumatized not by being enslaved but by living with a mother who is traumatized by slavery, whilst in Homegoing the recurrent tropes of a black necklace, fire, and fear of water in the stories of the various generations suggest that the collective trauma of slavery is transmitted from one generation to the next. This is a significant difference, because it suggests the novels engage differently with the question central to the scholarly debate on transmission of trauma: can trauma be transmitted or is it the traumatized parent who creates a traumatizing atmosphere for the child?Show less
Recently, many contemporary photographers have started using analogue photography again. This is an interesting occurrence, since we’re living in a digital age where everything is technologically...Show moreRecently, many contemporary photographers have started using analogue photography again. This is an interesting occurrence, since we’re living in a digital age where everything is technologically possible. It seems as if contemporary photographers using analog, step out of today's digitized society and into the world of old techniques. This thesis is a study about the use of photography in a digital age. The case study used in this research is the artwork And, where did the peacocks go? by Miho Kajioka. This photographer has created analogue images which are shown on the artist’s website and social media. Analogue and digital photography are widely discussed by media critics whose vision differs from each other. One group of critics advocates for analog photography and its material and indexical characteristics. Whereas, the digital medium has none of these components. The other group of critics advocates a new vision of the contemporary use of the medium photography. Based upon this debate, this thesis explores the relationship between contemporary use of analog and digital photography with Kajioka’s work as an example. Her work has different themes and elements that will provide insight into the complexity of indexicality in various forms. On this basis, it shows how the analog and digital medium has melted into each other and how the process of analog is important for the end result of Kajioka’s series.Show less
This thesis reveals a reflection on trauma in a personal photographic project and focuses on the relationship between photography and memory, and photography and trauma. It aims to answer the...Show moreThis thesis reveals a reflection on trauma in a personal photographic project and focuses on the relationship between photography and memory, and photography and trauma. It aims to answer the question how a visual project created in the format of a reconstructed family photo album can provide insights into issues addressed in theoretical debates on those relationships.Show less
In my analysis of Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers (2004), Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (1969), I will look...Show moreIn my analysis of Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers (2004), Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (1969), I will look at the ways in which writers employ various literary techniques (fragmentation, syntax disruption, ellipses, text/image layout, repetitions, symbols, photograph insertion, intertexts, framing of panels, and so on) in order to represent the unspeakable and evasive nature of traumatic experiences. The use and interplay of these techniques in the image-text setting of the two novels and Spiegelman’s graphic narrative leads to the construction of discursive events that help the reader understand and feel emotionally engaged with the narrator’s story, thus encouraging empathetic reading and contributing to secondary witnessing of the narrator’s trauma on the part of the reader.Show less
The literary phenomena of segmentation in La vie mode d'emploi makes the reader purposely suffer in a way similar to Perec, in relation to his traumatic and problematic past. With the help of...Show moreThe literary phenomena of segmentation in La vie mode d'emploi makes the reader purposely suffer in a way similar to Perec, in relation to his traumatic and problematic past. With the help of psychoanalytical notions such as "defense mechanisms", "transference", "counter-transference", "trauma"; and terms from contemporary cognitive behavioural sources, I corroborate this assertion. As memories are necessary according to Freud for a bereavement process, Perec lacks them, and therefore this process would not be possible. Nevertheless, I show that contemporary ideas about "dissociation", bereavement and auto-narrative, supports my claim that La vie mode d'emploi can be seen as a literary representation of a bereavement process.Show less
The artist-as-archivist is not a new concept. Artists have been dealing with the archive for some time, mostly employing personal or found material. There is a small group of artists that works...Show moreThe artist-as-archivist is not a new concept. Artists have been dealing with the archive for some time, mostly employing personal or found material. There is a small group of artists that works with fictional archives, meaning that the archives they produce are made from scratch. These archives do not necessarily represent actual events but rather point towards issues surrounding the archives that seem problematic. This thesis will look at three of these fictional archives and bring them in connection with postmodern archival theory. This theory advocates a more open and active archive, and in this context it seems possible to discuss fictional archives and their implications. Aspects such as identity, minorities, production of knowledge, Institutional Critique, trauma and the writing of history will be considered. As the three main case studies will serve The Fae Richards Photo Archive (1996) by Zoe Leonard, Fauna Secreta (1985) by Joan Fontcuberta and Pere Formiguera and The Atlas Group (1989-2004), initiated by Walid Raad.Show less
Novels Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Falling Man by Don DeLillo and The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid all engage with the individual and collective traumas...Show moreNovels Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Falling Man by Don DeLillo and The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid all engage with the individual and collective traumas of 9/11. They do so in different ways and from different perspectives, but each struggles with the desire for (or impossibility of) achieving narrative closure. My thesis will use Mieke Bal’s theory linking trauma to the impossibility of closure in order to analyze the novels’ strategies to address the trauma of 9/11. I will argue that the level of healing achieved is directly related to the degree of narrative closure each novel reaches. Oskar, the child protagonist of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (year), addresses the trauma of losing his father in the attacks by going on a quest and keeping a scrapbook in which he collects his memories of his father’s life and death. This process allows him (and the novel) to achieve closure. Falling Man (year) collects the fragments of the lives of direct and indirect New York victims of the attacks, and tries to reassemble them. Here, the trauma is addressed on a more collective level than in the case of ELaIC, sometimes successfully, in other cases less so. The Reluctant Fundamentalist (year) is a novel from the other side: its speaker and main character is a Pakistani activist, whose trauma consists of his rejection by American society after 9/11. Changez and the other characters function as metaphors for the national traumas incurred. These remain unresolved and the novel accordingly does not reach narrative closure. Together, these novels suggest that individual 9/11 traumas may be worked through successfully, but that there remains an unresolved collective or even global trauma.Show less
