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123757

Scars of Trauma: Duality of Signification in Edwidge Danticat's The Dew Breaker (2004)

Article

Last updated: 26 Dec 2024

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Abstract

As sliding into the abyss of trauma is harrowing, the cathartic role of telling one's story becomes crucial. This paper studies The Dew Breaker (2004) by Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat exploring how a work of fiction can be testimony of trauma and how the notion of trauma can penetrate a narrative; form and content. It shows how scars of political torture narrate the trauma of Haitian people during and after the Duvalier regime. The paper reads The Dew Breaker as striking in countering the perspective towards trauma narratives as unilateral manifestations of pain, victimisation, silence and/or irredeemable guilt. The novel is rich in workings of trauma that mainly take the form of dualities and, it is argued, these are dualities that interrelate to reconcile. Layers of trauma are presented in the form of binary patterns rather than binary oppositions. Suffering is not versus healing, alienation does not impede narration, and neither is the victim placed against the perpetrator. The aim of the paper is to expand trauma's conceptual framework by blurring the line between apparent dichotomies and formulates a new possibility of approaching a trauma narrative that can bear a sign of hope and transformation.

DOI

10.21608/ttaip.2019.123757

Keywords

Trauma, Haiti, narration, Healing, Edwidge Danticat

Authors

First Name

Eman

Last Name

Mostafa Ahmed Atta

MiddleName

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Affiliation

Egyptian Institute of Alexandria Academy of Management and Accounting, Egypt

Email

emostafa2011@hotmail.com

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Orcid

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Volume

1

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

18555

Issue Date

2019-12-01

Receive Date

2018-05-01

Publish Date

2019-12-01

Page Start

200

Page End

215

Print ISSN

2636-4069

Online ISSN

2735-3451

Link

https://ttaip.journals.ekb.eg/article_123757.html

Detail API

https://ttaip.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=123757

Order

11

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,357

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Textual Turnings: An International Peer-Reviewed Journal in English Studies

Publication Link

https://ttaip.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Scars of Trauma: Duality of Signification in Edwidge Danticat's The Dew Breaker (2004)

Details

Type

Article

Created At

23 Jan 2023