Recovery From Trauma:Analysis On Female Characters In Lynn Nottage’s Ruined

Lynn Nottage,who is considered as one of the most famous contemporary American playwrights,created numerous plays about African American women.In Ruined,she vividly depicts three major females’ plight and efforts to seize the hope under the background of Congo civil war.They are miserable,desperate,and overwhelmed after suffering traumas.Up to now,it has aroused a wide range of attention abroad;however,there are fewer research achievements.A number of scholars and literary critics have analyzed Ruined from a variety of perspectives,including strategic rape theory,thematic analysis,character analysis and so on.Few scholars pay attention to the trauma problems in the work.Psychological trauma is the core concept of Judith Herman’s theory,she focuses on women,children as well as veterans by means od case studies.The thesis compares and analyzes the different causes of traumas,the respective trauma symptoms,and the efforts to achieve trauma recovery from the three major female characters.Moreover,the author thinks that the three major female characters have successfully recovered from their individual traumas through their own attempts to some degree.