A Study Of The Jewish Trauma And Recovery In Harold Pinter's Ashes To Ashes And The Room

This thesis intends to explore the causal factors for the Jewish trauma through analysis of the root causes of the characters‘ traumatic memories in Harold Pinter's two plays,Ashes to Ashes and The Room,as well as the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD)symptoms.Then recovery plans are made for the postwar Jewish populations,which are represented by the characters in Pinter's plays.Due to the subtle coincidence between the symptoms of characters in Pinter's plays and those of the PTSD patients,we try to apply the PTSD specific theory to identify the in-depth causes for such symptoms in the play characters.Combination and application of the PTSD theory with the trauma theory can be conducive to our better interpretation of these two plays.The thesis comprises four chapters.Chapter One presents the connection between the trauma and the plays through analysis of the Jewish historical literature and the trauma theory,and goes on to find out why the traumatic theme appears in Pinter's plays from the perspective of the playwrights personal experience and his political standpoints.Chapter Two deconstructs Rebecca in Ashes to Ashes into three roles: victim,bystander,and participant,to combine the traumatic memories and the PTSD symptoms for analysis of the Jewish collective trauma that she represents.Chapter Three analyzes the Victim vs Intruder model typical in the play of The Room,focusing on how the postwar Jews,who are represented by Rose,deal with the psychological trauma after the wars as well as the root of their recovery failure.Chapter Four analyzes both the individual and collective factors for the Jews‘ trauma recovery,aimed at the recovery plan made for the postwar Jewish population by means of recall,transformation,and redemption.The thesis adopts the research method of documentary analysis.By textual studies,the realistic significance is explored.To date,there are a considerable number of homeless Jews living in the peacetime,and how to rebuild their sense of security and the sense of belonging to the new residing country is becoming a social issue.Based on the collective trauma mirrored in the two plays,a recovery plan can be made to allow readers to better understand the Jewish nation.Owing to the same historical background and special theoretical basis of the study of the traumatic theme in Pinter's two plays and the postwar Jewish trauma recovery,?seek of the reality from the plays? can be an effective channel for deep studies of the plays.