On The Trauma And Its Recovery Of The Females In Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride

Margaret Atwood(1939—)is a Canadian poet,novelist,and literary critic,known as the "Queen of Canadian Literature".Her works have won many awards at home and abroad,such as the Governor General’s Award,the Franz Kafka Prize,the Man Booker Prize and so on.The Robber Bride is Atwood’s eighth novel,in which Atwood gives a profound description of the situation of the three Canadian heroines,reflecting and exposing many historical,social and cultural issues.The research on The Robber Bride at home and abroad mainly focuses on narratology,feminist criticism and post-colonialism.In recent years,there has been a new trend of trauma research,but it is still in its infancy and needs to be further explored.Therefore,this thesis attempts to interpret The Robber Bride with trauma theory.The thesis is divided into three parts:introduction,body and conclusion.The introduction mainly introduces Margaret Atwood’s life,literary achievements,and the content of The Robber Bride,summarizes the research status of The Robber Bride at home and abroad,briefly introduces the trauma theory as well as its development,and puts forward the research significance,method and structure of this thesis.The body part includes the second,third and fourth chapters.The second chapter combs the traumatized psychology of the three female protagonists,Tony,Charis and Roz in the novel from the two aspects of emotion and consciousness.The third chapter explores the three females’ prolonged traumatic experiences and the historical,cultural and social problems reflected by them.Canada was in the shadow of World War II in the 20th century.The feminist movement in the 1970s made it known to the public that the most common sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD)were not men on the battlefield but women in daily life.The origin of the traumatic experiences of Tony and Charis in their childhood is World War II.Having been a colonized country for a long time,Canada is culturally dependent on Britain and economically on the United States,which gives birth to the cultural worship.As a result,the three female characters all choose the wrong partners and enter painful marriages.At the same time,the spiritual manipulation and oppression of women by the patriarchal society is another important reason for the trauma suffered by the three women in their adulthood.The fourth chapter analyzes the process of the three heroines coming out of the trauma.Through the establishment of a deep sisterhood,the three women gain the courage to face their traumatic memories and thus find a way out in the world surrounded by trauma,finally getting out of the trauma and regaining a new life.The fifth chapter summarizes the whole thesis.The writing of the trauma of the three women in The Robber Bride reflects Atwood’s concern for the living condition and psychological world of the female group.Meanwhile,Atwood provides methods and inspirations for the traumatized women through the recovery of trauma and points out the key role of sisterhood in the recovery process.