Embracing Darkness and Silence: A Cognitive Reading of Trauma in A Small Silence, by Jumoke Verissimo

The purpose of the present article is to discuss how A Small Silence (2019), by the Nigerian author Jumoke Verissimo, conjures up a provocative approach to traumatic memories. The tropes of silence and darkness—closely bound to the Nigerian context where power outages are frequent—are sensuously explored in evocative prose. Darkness is offered as a refuge against the blinding effect of light, and silence is oftentimes preferred to healing through narrativisation. Desire and Prof, the two main fictional characters, devise a peculiar dialogue of half-uttered and unspoken words—and reminiscences—that are arguably in tune with cognitive literary approaches to individual trauma. In addition, in this article an Oriental aesthetics is deployed to delineate the novel’s use of shadows and isolation. In contrast to classical trauma fiction, A Small Silence presents a less experimental literary narrative of individual trauma. At the same time, the novel rejects simplistic binaries such as trauma-health, dark-light, forgetfulness-memory and mind-body. Rather, it lingers in a space between individual healing and Nigeria’s intricate neocolonial circumstances.

Trauma, Narrative and History: Representation of Traumatic Experience in the Works of Algirdas Landsbergis

The twentieth century witnessed an abundant number of traumatic events related to dark history. Trauma caused by war, occupation, exile, repression, gave rise to migration or mass murder. To rely upon Cathy Caruth (1996: 3), the concept of trauma is understood as a physical wound; however, subsequently in medicine and the literature of psychiatry, especially in Freud’s works, the concept of trauma came to be understood as a psychological wound. In addition, trauma is not only a disturbing or stressful experience that affects an individual physically or psychologically, it may also be based on other factors created by society. Over time the field of trauma in various contexts expanded so that today it is widely used in sociology when analysing historical and cultural events. Cultural traumatic memory is mirrored in trauma fiction that conveys the experience of loss and suffering, there is a space for memories, introspection, recollections, flashbacks and awful remembrances that are colored by pain. Apart from individual, event-based trauma, there is another category of trauma variously called cultural or historical trauma, which affects groups of people. Numerous studies have been conducted on the latter topic, however, trauma and its expression in Lithuanian literature has not yet been sufficiently documented. The aim of this study is to discuss the concepts of cultural and historical trauma and the way trauma is reflected in Algirdas Jeronimas Landsbergis’ works. The authors of the study claim that Landsbergis – one of many Lithuanian writers-in-exile – wrote texts that fill a cultural vacuum and invite a re-discussion of what was most painful in the past.

Elements of Trauma Fiction in Jonathan Safran Foer’s "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Trauma fiction was one of the most written types of literature in America in the wake of 9/11. Not a very popular genre due to the sensitive subject matter it can contain, the trauma of 9/11 contributed significantly to its resurgence, especially in New York. Jonathan Safran Foer is one of the youngest and also most talented writers in New York. Known for his daring and innovative style, his novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, is unique among other works of its genre. It deals with multiple plotlines and different historical traumas presented against the backdrop of 9/11, concerning itself primarily with the victims of the tragedy and their attempts to reconstruct their lives. Moreover, it explores the ways in which different generations can come together and help each other overcome their respective traumas, emphasizing the importance of unity and solidarity between people of all ages and mindsets.

It is More than a Bunch of Numbers: Trauma, Voicing and Identity in Jennifer Chow’s The 228 Legacy

This paper explores how Jennifer Chow’s The 228 Legacy (2013) recaptures the buried hi/stories of the 228 Massacre with a trauma narrative about Silk’s deep-kept secrets. It first delineates the evolution of trauma theory and trauma fiction highlighting the significance of articulating trauma and its relevance in healing, hi/storytelling and identity construction. This demarcation shall frame a critical lens to illustrate how Chow innovates distinct insulated narratives on the protagonists to mimic intergenerational ramifications of trauma in the Lu family, to represent their psychological healing and to express the association between silence-breaking, remembering and identity construction. This critical endeavor will also demonstrate that Silk’ story of survival promises the survival of hi/story. Thus, the novel proper not only portrays the traumatic impact, a nightmarish “legacy,” of 228 but also renders Silk’s trauma narrative as the “legacy” to connect with Taiwanese heritage and construct Taiwanese American identities. Given Chow’s innovative form and unique themes about trauma and Taiwanese American diaspora, the article situates her novel in the emerging Taiwanese American literature, Asian American literature, contemporary American diasporic literature and trauma fiction.

A Study of Traumatic Experiences of Female Characters in Sophia Khan’s Novel “Yasmeen”

The current study aims to explore the traumatic experiences of female characters of Sophia Khan’s Yasmeen. M. Balaev (2014) identified “the concept of trauma as pathological and unspeakable” in the genre of trauma fiction. The insights Bloom’s Psychological Trauma Theory (1999) provided the theoretical framework for the descriptive and critical textual analysis of the novel which in turn disclosed the traumatic experiences of leading female characters, Yasmeen, Irenie, Celeste and Mehrunissa. The current study is in the qualitative paradigm of research and suggested through findings that the female characters are suffering from various traumatic experiences resulted through the loss, distrust, immoral values, and re-enactment; the teenage young characters, Irenie and Celeste can dilute the trauma by dissociating the emotions whereas Yasmeen and Mehrunissa, the adult characters cannot cope their traumatic experiences. Though the traumatic experiences of all characters are separate in content and degree but the traumatic experiences of ‘Evolution’s legacy’, emotions of loss, and ‘Learned helpless’, constrained actions, are common to all female characters.

Mastering the Great Purge Trauma: Mythopoetic Strategies in Contemporary Russian Literature for the Young

Formerly reserved for adult, texts about traumatic events of the past have now entered the domain of children’s literature. Such texts “play the key role in the double-edged process of grieving and prevention” (A. Etkind) and are seen as essential for familiarizing Russian children and adolescents with social history. This article analyzes the ways of representing and mastering traumatic experiences of the past in contemporary literature an focuses on the period of the Great Purge in Russia, using the examples of E. Elchin’s Breaking Stalin’s Nose and Y. Yakovleva’s Raven’s Children. 1938. These narratives rely on the mythopoetic strategies of a parable as an ultimately artificial and supra-historical construction; at the same time, they utilize techniques used by literary non-fiction oriented towards ego-texts and documentary evidence. These strategies use real historical events as a trigger for associative memory in the manner characteristic of the aesthetics of post-memory. Keywords: historical trauma, fiction of the Great Purge, historical fiction for children and young adult (YA), mythopoetic textual strategy, E.Elchin, Y. Yakovleva