N. Lake Starr

Senior Project Advisor

Thomas Hummel

Document Type

Project - Campus-only Access

Publication Date

Fall 2024

Keywords

Unrepresented trauma, W. R. Bion, Donald Winnicott, psychoanalysis, postmodern literature, object relations, Mark Z. Danielewski, Ann Quin, Roberto Bolaño, Giorgio Agamben, Ciudad Juárez, Nazi concentration camps, Muselmann

Abstract

Utilizing terminology introduced by W.R. Bion and Donald Winnicott this capstone develops a new understanding of unrepresented trauma, termed traumatic excess, and offers an analysis of the presence of this phenomenon in literature via three postmodern novels. Traumatic excess originates in traumatic experiences which overwhelm an individual’s ability to imbue experience or stimuli with meaning. This failure results in the localization of the traumatic experience to a dissociated part of the psyche which dominates the traumatized individual’s personality covertly. Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves serves as a case study of traumatic excess which highlights the dissociative struggle often associated with its effect on the individual psyche. Ann Quin’s Passages is similarly examined through the novel’s account of how traumatic excess affects the individual psyche as well as the interpersonal relationship. Finally, Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 is analyzed as an illustration of the prevalence of traumatic excess in individual, relational and societal systems, and, further, the importance of and potential for creating spaces free of these systems which lead to traumatic excess.

Department

Honors

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Psychic trauma; Psychoanalysis; Postmodernism (Literature)

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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