Dergiler / Transynergy Journal of Translation, Literature and Linguistics / 2024 / Volume 3, Issue 1
“Homeless at the Seashore”: Trauma in Refugee Narrative, Sea Prayer, by Khaled Hosseini
- Sayfa
- 49–61
- DOI
- —
Özet
Abstract Trauma theory provides an insight into modern literary works particularly to those, which are written upon prevailing chaos in the world. As Cathy Caruth underlines in her Unclaimed Experience (1996), trauma theory discusses the disturbed psyche and the factors lie beneath. Caruth has introduced literary trauma theory and three aspects of personal trauma that are “repetitious, timeless and unspeakable” (p. 8), which are found interwoven in Khaled Hosseini’s refugee narrative, his illustrated novella Sea Prayer (2018). The novella depicts the perennial problems faced through war, violence and refugee life. Hosseini urges the readers to reflect on the personal and collective plight that refugees suffered when they set out for better life opportunities. The novella is about a traumatic experience, and Caruth’s concepts on literary trauma theory provide a useful frame to deal with traumatic memory and its repercussions. Thus, the study seeks to display the glimpses of personal and collective trauma and traumatic memory in the related theory. The article designed in the descriptive methodology draws reader’s attention to displacement and nostalgia since the novella unfolds the dire dimension of human civilization sided with inhumane occurrences particularly in the Mediterranean region. It intends to reach at the conclusion that Hosseini’s refugee narrative highlights the traumatic existence and the plight of the refugees who are torn between nostalgia and traumatic memory.
Abstract
Abstract Trauma theory provides an insight into modern literary works particularly to those, which are written upon prevailing chaos in the world. As Cathy Caruth underlines in her Unclaimed Experience (1996), trauma theory discusses the disturbed psyche and the factors lie beneath. Caruth has introduced literary trauma theory and three aspects of personal trauma that are “repetitious, timeless and unspeakable” (p. 8), which are found interwoven in Khaled Hosseini’s refugee narrative, his illustrated novella Sea Prayer (2018). The novella depicts the perennial problems faced through war, violence and refugee life. Hosseini urges the readers to reflect on the personal and collective plight that refugees suffered when they set out for better life opportunities. The novella is about a traumatic experience, and Caruth’s concepts on literary trauma theory provide a useful frame to deal with traumatic memory and its repercussions. Thus, the study seeks to display the glimpses of personal and collective trauma and traumatic memory in the related theory. The article designed in the descriptive methodology draws reader’s attention to displacement and nostalgia since the novella unfolds the dire dimension of human civilization sided with inhumane occurrences particularly in the Mediterranean region. It intends to reach at the conclusion that Hosseini’s refugee narrative highlights the traumatic existence and the plight of the refugees who are torn between nostalgia and traumatic memory.