Trauma of loss & 'The sum of misfortunes'

Abstract

The Trauma of Loss considers Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory in relation to three modern novels, namely: Ian McEwan’s The Child in time which deals with child abduction, Bill Clegg’s Did you ever have a family which is concerned with bereavement, and Carol Shields’ Unless where the loss derives from familial estrangement.

The thesis examines Caruth’s belief that trauma is “not known in the first instance” but “returns to haunt the survivor later on” manifesting itself in repeated unwanted thoughts, dreams and behaviours, which the trauma survivor struggles with in an effort to comprehend the initial trauma. I consider whether this is a valid representation of trauma in each novel, and the techniques each novelist uses to sustain reader interest, where action is repeated, or the trauma survivor is in stasis, suffering from what Caruth calls “numbing”. I consider the role witnessing plays in arriving at a totalized account of the trauma of loss, and touch on whether the trauma of loss is the private domain of the individual, or a communal experience.