Trauma and Narration as a Way of Coping with Trauma in Mary Karr's "The Liars' Club"

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2014 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik - Literatur, Note: 1,0, Universität Hamburg (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), Veranstaltung: Family Affairs: Recent American Memoir, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The recollection of traumatic memories is often fraught with enormous difficulties for a person affected by trauma. This is due to a disruption of memories, something that Cathy Caruth alludes to in her definition of trauma in Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History by stating that the "response to the event occurs in the often delayed, uncontrolled, repetitive appearance of hallucinations and other intrusive phenomena". In her definition, Caruth refers to the distorted powers of recollection that very often only allow the traumatised person to access small fragments, if any at all, of the traumatic event. Even though this derangement of memories constitutes a type of psychological defence, and therewith temporarily serves the psyche as a means of protection, it is not conducive to one's mental health in the longer term. A much more beneficial long-term effect on the psyche of traumatised persons can be achieved through the conscious narration of trauma. In order for the traumatic event not to be triggered arbitrarily, the traumatic event must consciously be placed into the context of one's own life story. Based on Mary Karr's novel The Liars' Club, this term paper not only reveals what it is that initially prevents the author from the sincere coping with trauma, but also analyses how Karr makes use of her post-traumatic experiences in the writing process in order to overcome these.
So as to better illustrate the underlying themes of trauma, this paper includes several subsections that will help to gain further insights into the subject matter. Firstly, I would like to introduce the psychological effects of trauma and I hence included a subsection on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that shall introduce the basic relevance which trauma implicates. Secondly, I included a subsection on the two different pattern of defense of dissociation and repression as these frequently appear throughout the memoir. Following this, I added a section regarding the narration of trauma. A first subsection on the Narrative Exposure Therapy allows the reader to learn about a psychotherapeutic approach which is often used for the treatment of people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A second subsection on certain writing strategies encompassing the narration of trauma shall complete the theoretical framework of this paper.