Women's Trauma In Joyce Carol Oates's You Must Remember This

Joyce Carol Oates(1938-),a famous contemporary American novelist,has explored the psychological states of traumatized American women and expressed her deep concern over American social ills among her impressive oeuvre.You Must Remember This,one of Oates' s representative works,portrays the domestic life of an ordinary American middle-class family in the 1950 s.With the support of trauma theory,this thesis demonstrates its female characters' mental predicaments caused by the dysfunctional family relationships and the social anxiety in the 1950 s and explores the function of writing strategies,namely,variable internal focalization,free speech and repetitive images,in the presentation of traumatic repetition,flashback,silence,and dissociation,revealing the importance of reconstruction of self-identity and the harmonious family relationship in the healing of female trauma.This thesis is divided into three chapters to explore the women's trauma in the novel from the perspectives of trauma experiences,trauma narrative,and trauma healing.The introduction gives a brief overview of the author,the research background,and the research value of You Must Remember This.Chapter one presents the trauma symptoms of Hannah and Enid as well as the corresponding causes.They suffer from psychological and sexual abuse triggered by the dysfunctional family relationships in the anxious era under the tensions of the Cold War,McCarthyism,and atomic bombs.Chapter two analyzes the trauma narrative strategies in the novel.The use of variable internal focalization repeatedly unfolds the descriptions of the same traumatic events from the perspectives of different characters,which is consistent with the repetitive compulsion of traumatic memories.The inner thoughts in the form of free direct speech fully present the uncontrollable invasion of traumatic memories while the traumatic silence is subtly showed in the free indirect speech.Besides,the recurring images of a burning dove and the yellow wallpaper vividly illustrate Enid's traumatic dissociation.Chapter three focuses on the healing of traumatized women.Hannah and Enid confront their trauma by retelling the story or recollecting the traumatic memories and then reconstruct their self-identity throughthe power of sewing and music.With the reconciliation with family members,both Hannah and Enid derive the healing strength from familial love to recover from trauma.The conclusion part summarizes the contents of each chapter of this thesis.Through depicting the traumatic experiences of women with various writing techniques,Oates presents the plight of American women in the 1950 s under the dysfunctional family relationships and reveals the significance of rebuilding subjectivity and restoring family relations,especially the mother-daughter bond,for the healing of women's trauma.