Date of Award
1-1-2011
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Organizational Unit
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences
First Advisor
W. Scott Howard, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Lydia Gil-Keff
Third Advisor
William Zaranka
Fourth Advisor
George Potts
Keywords
Argentina, Armenia, Genocide, Holocaust, Testimony of atrocity, Trauma
Abstract
For societies and cultures that experience mass torture and trauma, giving voice to the story of what happened is significant for both the specific individuals who have survived or witnessed the trauma, and the culture that is forced to process it and incorporate the experience into its collective identity. Testimonial literature that resulted from the detention and torture of desaparecidos under the military dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s and 80s, and the genocide of the Armenian people in 1915, reveals many different approaches in the ways that people write about torture and trauma. In attempting to find a voice to describe trauma, which is inherently indescribable, accounts range from factual histories to artistic endeavors intended to capture the truth of the experience being related. For many survivors, telling their stories is an act of resistance against the perpetrators' attempts to silence them. Examining the voices of survivors and witnesses in the context of literary trauma theory and historiography allows the story itself to be considered in terms of the implications that it has for both those who tell it, and those who hear it. In the aftermath of trauma, the generations descending from the survivors are deeply affected by how the story of trauma has been transmitted through their families and cultures. It has powerful implications for both individual and collective identity, and this is vividly displayed in the gestures of memorialization, literature, and personal perspectives of those who live in post-traumatic cultures.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Jennifer Rinaldi
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
en
File Size
214 p.
Recommended Citation
Rinaldi, Jennifer, "Survivor Song: The Voice of Trauma and Its Echoes" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 552.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/552
Copyright date
2011
Discipline
Literature, Cultural anthropology, History