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The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613839228403712 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Festus, Tammy-Leigh |
| author2 | Van der Rede, Lauren |
| author_browse | Festus, Tammy-Leigh Van der Rede, Lauren |
| author_facet | Van der Rede, Lauren Festus, Tammy-Leigh |
| author_sort | Festus, Tammy-Leigh |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/131657 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:42:30.205Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
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| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
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| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/131657 The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return Festus, Tammy-Leigh Van der Rede, Lauren Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. Psychic trauma in literature Post-traumatic stress disorder in literature Violence in literature Body image in literature UCTD Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Trauma is a concept that reverberates throughout an individual’s life. This echo lives on in the body and could return in unpredictable and harmful ways. As trauma challenges the ability to speak, literature and its representation of trauma becomes a way to combat the ‘unspeakable’ nature of trauma in a way that is unique to the literary framework. The genre of the trauma novel and memoirs depicting trauma often focus on the individual’s narration styles, how the protagonists interact with their environments, and the aspect I find particularly interesting is the attention centred around the bodies of the protagonists. The Body Speaks: Reading Literary Stagings of Embodied Expressions of Trauma and Its Violent Return seeks to critically analyse the ways that the bodies discussed in the texts struggle to verbalise their internal suffering. I focus on assessing the ways that these protagonists express their emotional and psychological suffering in ways that are considered harmful to themselves. Within Gayle Forman’s If I Stay (2009), the protagonist has an out-of-body experience. This dissociative condition is represented through its fragmented narration which is relayed through constant flashbacks that disrupt the linear storytelling – which I suggest is symbolic of the fragmentary nature of trauma. The Program (2013) is Suzanne Young’s dystopian novel that aligns with many of the elements associated with the trauma novel. Through flashbacks and vivid descriptions, this novel challenges difficult and sensitive themes, such as self-harm and suicide – by analysing the wound left on the body. Despite these delicate topics, the novel aims to challenge many of the misconception regarding why the protagonists turn to these maladaptive acts. This is accomplished not by shying away from what these acts, but through illustrative and descriptive language which does not serve to sensationalise – rather to highlight how avoiding these topics result in more harm than good. Lastly, Roxane Gay’s memoir, Hunger: A memoir of (My) Body (2017) focuses on many elements of trauma and how she copes with the memory of her sexual assault at a young age. By reading this as a literary trauma text, the focus on Gay’s body illustrates how her unhealthy relationship with food becomes harmful to her. Gay rationalises that the excessive weight gain caused by her binge eating behaviours was an attempt to protect herself from more harm; if her body was bigger, she would be deemed as unattractive, yet safe. Gay uses vivid descriptions to relate her trauma, as well as focusing on the language she uses to describe her own body and how it ‘speaks’ her internalised trauma. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar. Masters 2025-02-04T08:07:11Z 2025-02-04T08:07:11Z 2024-12 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/131657 en Stellenbosch University v, 117 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Psychic trauma in literature Post-traumatic stress disorder in literature Violence in literature Body image in literature UCTD Festus, Tammy-Leigh The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return |
| title | The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return |
| title_full | The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return |
| title_fullStr | The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return |
| title_full_unstemmed | The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return |
| title_short | The body speaks : reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return |
| title_sort | body speaks reading literary stagings of embodied expressions of trauma and its violent return |
| topic | Psychic trauma in literature Post-traumatic stress disorder in literature Violence in literature Body image in literature UCTD |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/131657 |
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