Journal Article

Traumatic Experiences in Selected Contemporary Poems by Patricia Smith

Mohamed, Sara Ahmed

2021

Overview

The thesis depicts the traumatic experiences in selected poems by the American contemporary poet Patricia Smith. It investigates the psychological impacts that affect Smith's poetry. It examines how the language used in Smith's poems reflects the traumatic experiences that she has been through. The thesis follows Judith Herman's encounter with trauma. According to Herman, after passing a traumatic experience, the traumatized person suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD. PTSD folds in three main symptoms hyper arousal, intrusion, and constriction. According to Herman, the survivor starts his recovery journey after a struggling time with traumatic disorders. The recovery process consists of three main stages; establishment of safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection. The study demonstrates how the hyper arousal's symptoms are noticeably mirrored in the language of Smith's poems. Furthermore, it traces the disturbing intruders that overwhelm Smith's mind during waking and sleeping time. The thesis determines the state of constriction that controls Smith's soul as a result of the many racial and traumatic experiences that she passes through. The second part of the study investigates Smith's journey in getting over her pains and restoring power over herself. The study concludes that Patricia Smith suffers from many traumatic symptoms in most of her poems. She takes deep steps in her recovery journey, but she is still surrounded by the foreshadows of the previous experiences. The study affirms the rule of literature in healing traumatic pain. Therefore, Smith uses her literary tools for retelling her traumatic experiences. Literary Trauma Theory is one of the most important contemporary studies in modern criticism. The variety of studies, concerning trauma, allows literary scholars to use different definitions of trauma. This research is mainly concerned with trauma theory due to the close textual reading of Judith Herman's book Trauma and Recovery. Furthermore, the research works on reviewing Sigmund Freud's book Beyond the Pleasure Principles, Cathy Caruth books Unclaimed Experience, Trauma, Explorations in Memory, and Empirical Truth The study also traces Briere and Scott book Principles of Trauma Therapy: A Guide to Symptoms, Evaluation, Treatment, which is based on the latest statistics of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association.

• Publisher: جامعة قناة السويس - كلية الآداب والعلوم الإنسانية
• Subject: التجارب الصادمة / الشعر الإنجليزي / الصراعات النفسية / النقد الأدبي / سميث، باتريشيا