A Thematic Study Of Trauma In Silko’s Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko (1948-) is one of the most important representatives ofNative American Renaissance and has gained numerous and authoritative Americanliterary awards. Ceremony, published in1977, is Silko’s first prominent achievementin literature. The novel presents how Tayo, a Native American veteran, manages toregain confidence in his life and to reconstruct his bonds with Native American landand culture by virtue of Native American tradition and ceremonies.Since the publication of Ceremony, critics have paid much attention to NativeAmerican tradition and ethnicity in the novel. But in order to have a betterunderstanding of the novel, we need to take into consideration the cultural andhistorical backgrounds when Silko wrote this book. On the one hand, Silko sufferedphysically and psychologically from the disconnection from her hometown. On theother hand, she was so concerned about the identity construction of her own people.This thesis intends to conduct a thematic study of trauma in the novel. Theoreticalapproach to trauma started in the1920s with the efforts of Sigmund Freud, JudithHerman and et al. And trauma theory emerged in the United States in the early1990sand sought to elaborate on the cultural and ethical implications of trauma. The mainrepresentatives are Cathy Caruth, Shoshanna Felman, Jeffery Alexander and et al. Thecoinage of “cultural trauma”, which mainly refers to a horrendous event’s indelibleeffect on members of a collectivity, goes to Alexander, a sociology professor in YaleUniversity, in Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity (2004). The author of thisthesis intends to apply trauma theory, especially Herman’s and Alexander’sviewpoints, to analyze the traumatized characters in Ceremony.By comparing the main characters’ traumatic experiences, trauma symptoms andmeans of working through trauma in Ceremony, this thesis points out Silko’s impliedremedies for the minorities, especially for Native Americans, to work through traumacaused by the hegemony of white culture. In Silko’s eyes, inheriting and carryingforward their ethnic tradition, valuing the community and the family, and respecting nature and land are of great importance to the survival of Native Americans and theirculture.