An Interpretation Of The Autobiography Of My Mother From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

Jamaica Kincaid is a famous woman writer in English literary world. She was born on an island of West Indies — Antigua in 1949 and settled in America since she was seventeen. Later, Kincaid became a columnist for New Yorker. Among her works,the novel The Autobiography of My Mother is recognized as Kincaid’s best one.The thesis is an interpretation of trauma in Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother. Unfolding from the perspective of Xuela, the novel tells the experiences in her life, which is a reflection of trauma caused by colonization. By the detailed symptoms of trauma on Xuela from the perspective of Judith Herman’s trauma theory, this thesis attempts to analyze the causes of the trauma. In addition,this thesis tries to understand Xuela’s process of recovery from her experiences of obtaining the sense of safety, mourning and the reconnection to life. Through the analysis, it can be found that Xuela’s trauma reflects the trauma of Dominican women and the Dominican nation. Meanwhile, this thesis explores the purpose of Kincaid’s writing for this novel. It enlightens the colonized that they can only extricate themselves from trauma, then seek for real independence through building a sense of self-awareness and reconnecting to life in exploitation and oppression.This thesis applies Judith Herman’s trauma theory to the analysis of The Autobiography of My Mother, which provides an interpretation of the novel from a new perspective. Moreover, this combination offers reference for analyzing literary works in the light of trauma theory.