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Trauma and Photography in Double Vision and out of This World

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Trauma and Photography in Double Vision and out of This World Ghent University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy TRAUMA AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN DOUBLE VISION AND OUT OF THIS WORLD Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of “Licentiaat in de Taal- Supervisor: en Letterkunde: Germaanse Talen” Prof. Dr. Ingo Berensmeyer by Katrien Van Craeyvelt May 2007 TRAUMA AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN DOUBLE VISION AND OUT OF THIS WORLD CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 PART I: TRAUMA..............................................................................................................4 1 TRAUMA IN GENERAL ....................................................................................4 2 TRAUMA NARRATIVES...................................................................................7 3 TRAUMA IN DOUBLE VISION AND OUT OF THIS WORLD ........................9 3.1 Denial...................................................................................................10 3.2 Acting-out............................................................................................17 3.3 Working-through..................................................................................20 4 NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES ...........................................................................22 4.1 Dialogism.............................................................................................22 4.2 Sentence structure................................................................................23 4.3 Interruptions.........................................................................................25 4.4 Repetition.............................................................................................26 4.5 The visual.............................................................................................28 4.6 Split personalities.................................................................................29 5 THEMES.............................................................................................................31 5.1 Fractured relationships.........................................................................31 5.2 Trauma and the sexual .........................................................................34 5.3 Survivor’s guilt....................................................................................37 5.4 The escape to the safe world................................................................39 5.5 Micro and macro events intertwined....................................................43 6 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................45 PART II: PHOTOGRAPHY..............................................................................................46 1 PHOTOGRAPHY: FRAMING THE WORLD..................................................46 1.1 Truth versus aestheticism.....................................................................47 1.2 Memento Mori.....................................................................................50 1.3 The escape behind the lens ..................................................................52 2 ETHICAL QUESTIONS ....................................................................................54 2.1 “Was this an act of inhumanity?” ........................................................54 2.2 “Someone has to be a witness, someone has to see” ...........................57 2.3 A reflection of the micro on the macro................................................60 I 3 TRAUMA, NARRATIVE AND PHOTOGRAPHY..........................................62 3.1 Trauma in photography........................................................................62 3.2 A narrative accompanying the image ..................................................65 4 GOYA: EL SUEÑO DE LA RAZÓN PRODUCE MONSTRUOS...................69 4.1 Los Desastres de la Guerra .................................................................70 4.2 Universal..............................................................................................72 5 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................74 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................76 SOURCES ....................................................................................................................78 II INTRODUCTION This dissertation deals with the issues of trauma and photography on the basis of two distinguished novels: Pat Barker’s Double Vision and Graham Swift’s Out of this World. These writers are among the most highly regarded contemporary British novelists and are both known for their profound exploration of trauma. Pat Barker was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, Yorkshire, on May 8, 1943. When publishing her tenth novel Double Vision in 2003, she was already a mature writer. Earlier on, she received many awards including the Guardian Prize for Fiction for her novel The Eye in the Door, the second book of her highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy and, the Booker Prize for Fiction, received for The Ghost Road; the final novel of the trilogy in 1995. Later on, she was also awarded an Hon. Ph. D. by the Open University and the University of Hertfordshire and was appointed CBE in 2000. Graham Swift was born in London on May 4, 1949. His novel Out of this World was published for the first time in 1988. Just like Barker, his work has been much praised by readers and critics for which he received many awards. His most celebrated novel Waterland, which was written a few years before Out of this World, received many prizes including the Guardian Fiction Prize. The book was on the shortlist for the Booker Prize for Fiction, but Swift only gained the award for a later novel, Last Orders. One sunny afternoon in Doctor Craps’s office, these two novels (Out of this World and Double Vision) were brought together. The previous year, I had attended his lecture on trauma representation in contemporary literature and film enthusiastically, for which I discussed Out of this World with regard to trauma. During the following summer, I embarked upon the recommended reading list of the course and stumbled upon Double Vision. When visiting Doctor Craps one month later, I was determined to write my dissertation about this novel. Yet, during our conversation, we reminisced about his course and how much I had enjoyed exploring Out of this World. We soon discovered many parallels between both stories. Since then, the similarities between the two piled up and I decided to examine them in more detail which resulted in this dissertation. 1 My focus is on Barker’s and Swift’s approach of two big challenges: trauma and photography, according to which this dissertation is divided into two parts. In part one, I will first discuss the major features of trauma and trauma narratives in particular. Following these general outlines, I will examine how both writers assimilate the symptoms of trauma and its different phases in their novels, concentrating in particular on two main characters: Stephen from Double Vision and Harry from Out of this World. The different strategies writers use to evoke effects of trauma will be elucidated added with examples of how both Swift and Barker applied these in their novels. Later on, different themes touched upon by both writers will be discussed. Part two introduces a completely different theme: photography. Firstly, two major contrasts photography entails are examined. Further on, I shall address the ethical questions stemming from photography because of their significant role in both novels. Afterwards, I will link photography with trauma, elaborating its resemblance and proving that the photograph on its own has shortcomings. For the photograph to express itself, a narrative is needed which will work as a complementary force. This will be demonstrated on Ernst Friedrich’s Krieg dem Kriege! and also on the work of an artist from a different field: the painter Goya who allows text and image to correlate. As the English language is not my strongest point, I would like to thank my promoter professor Ingo Berensmeyer for thoroughly revising this dissertation. Also his comments and structural approach helped me on a great deal. Thanks also go to doctor Stef Craps, who put me on the right track and advised me on the most useful sources. 2 Note to the reader: The abbreviations OotW and DV are used to acknowledge the sources in the text. These, quite obviously, refer to the two main novels of my dissertation, namely Out of this World and Double Vision. 3 PART I: TRAUMA Peter says there is always a mark. Though it may not be easy to detect. No matter how much time elapses. Once the soil has been moved. Once men have interfered with the earth: it never reverts, there is always a mark. (OotW 193) In this first part, trauma and its different phases are elucidated, followed by a more detailed discussion of its main features in relation to Double Vision and Out of this world. The narrative techniques used by both Barker and Swift translating the traumas of its characters for the reader, are passed in review and examined. Finally, major themes that appear in the two novels receive special attention. 1 TRAUMA IN GENERAL Trauma occurs when persons are caught up in a situation that is too overwhelming for them to register in the ordinary way. They cannot grasp the reality
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