Trauma Theory
Literary Lens
Definition of Trauma
• Sigmund Freud defined trauma as “a wound
inflicted not upon the body but upon the
mind”
• Trauma is only healed when you “have
someone truly in your corner”
Trauma Literature
• “The need to tell and retell the story
of the traumatic experience, to make
it ‘real’ both to the victim and to the
community” AND
• “to tell a reality or truth that is not
otherwise available”
Examples of Human-Design Trauma
• War trauma
• Sexual/domestic trauma
• Child abuse
Victim vs Perpetrator
Perpetrator relies on silence and secrecy
If that does not work, the credibility of the
victim is attacked
Example of victim blaming?
• Example: the Chris Brown/Rihanna situation
• Boston Public Health Commission survey of
teens in Boston:
– 46% blamed Rihanna
– Where do kids learn this?
Assumptions of Trauma Theory
• Trauma impels people to withdraw and to
seek close relationships simultaneously
• Victims tend to have intense but unstable
relationships with partners
• When trauma caused by human sources (war,
rape, incest, abuse, torture) readers are
caught between the victim and the
perpetrator, especially if text allows the
perpetrator “story” of his or her own
What to do? Are these effects
on the victim in the text?
• No sense of safety
• Sense of autonomy
violated
• Sense of invasion and
loss of control
• Total humiliation
• Doubt of self and
others
• Sense of community
and faith damaged
Big Question
• What trauma has occurred to
characters in the text and/or
its creator and how has that
trauma affected them?
To This Day – Shane Koyczan
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltun92Dfn
PY
Journal
• Tell me how you understand Trauma Theory
• Tell me what you get when you apply the big
question to our video