Representations of Space/Place and their Relationship to Trauma in Contemporary Women’s Writing

Abstract

The thesis proposes a relationship between the fictional representation of female trauma and spatial theory. The trauma narratives reflect issues relevant to traumatised fictional women, as depicted in the following: Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker, Paradise by Toni Morrison, Lucky by Alice Sebold, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell, Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne, Jeanette Winterson’s memoir Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
This study advances a theory of an inter-relationship between Anthony Vidler’s notion of the uncanny and Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopias, which are publicly accessed sites. Anthony Vidler’s theory of the uncanny relates to the sense of discomfort in a home or home nation when it is characterised by aggression, conflict, emotional abuse or violence for the women characters. The theory advanced is that most traumatised women characters experience some alleviation of their sensations of the uncanny and trauma when they access heterotopias.
The thesis is informed by the work of Judith Herman, who defines the stages of trauma which are characterised by nightmares, dissociation, flashbacks or memory loss, which can be considered as enactments of traumatic experience. There is also acknowledgement of the feminist aspect of women’s suffering, which, historically, has been neglected. As some texts have postcolonial settings, postcolonial trauma theory is an important component of the thesis. Original gendered readings of the selected trauma narratives are made using spatial theories which offer a new perspective on fictional women’s traumatic suffering.

Date of Award	25 Mar 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Northampton
Supervisor	Sonya Andermahr (Supervisor) & Claire Allen (Supervisor)