Space, Power, Identity
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International Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication Volume 8, Issue 2, 2019 SPACE, POWER, IDENTITY ISSN 2285 – 3324 ISSN-L = 2285 – 3324 DOI: (Digital Object Identifier):10.5682/22853324 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ana-Maria Munteanu Ovidius University of Constanţa, RO [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITOR Adina Ciugureanu, PhD Ovidius University of Constanţa, RO [email protected] EDITOR Ralucea Petre, PhD Ovidius University of Constanţa, RO [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITORS Valentin Vanghelescu University of Bucharest, RO [email protected] Delia Vărzariu Bucharest School of Economics [email protected] International Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication https://crossculturenvironment.wordpress.com Volume 8, Issue 2, 2019 SPACE, POWER, IDENTITY Coordinators: Adina Ciugureanu Florian Andrei Vlad Ovidius University of Constanta Editura Universitară www.editurauniversitara.ro & Asociaţia pentru Dezvoltare Interculturală (ADI) www.adinterculturala.wordpress.com ADVISORY BOARD Sergiu Anghel National University of Theatre and Charles Moseley Cinematography ¨I.L. Caragiale¨ of University of Cambridge, UK Bucharest, RO [email protected] Marta Árkossy Ghezzo Stephen Prickett Lehman College, New York, USA Professor Emeritus, [email protected] University of Glasgow/Kent [email protected] Adina Ciugureanu Ovidius University of Constanta, RO Ludmila Patlanjoglu [email protected] National University of Theatre and Cinematography ¨I.L. Caragiale¨ of Augusto Rodrigues Da Silva Junior Bucharest, RO Universidade de Brasilia, Brasil [email protected] [email protected] Giovanni Rotiroti Timothy Ehlinger Universita Occidentale, Naples, Italy University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA [email protected] [email protected] Daniela Rovenţa – Frumuşani Victor A. Friedman University of Bucharest, RO University of Chicago, USA [email protected] [email protected] Leonor Santa Bárbara Cornelia Ilie Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal Malmö University, Sweden [email protected] [email protected] Ana Rodica Stăiculescu Mihai Coman Universitz of Bucharest, RO University of Bucharest, RO [email protected] [email protected] Ileana Marin Claudia Jensen University of Washington, Seattle, USA University of Washington, Seattle, USA [email protected] [email protected] Ana-Cristina Halichias Maria Do Rósario Laureano Santos University of Bucharest, RO Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] [email protected] Florentina Nicolae Eduard Vlad Ovidius University of Costanta, RO Ovidius University of Constanta, RO [email protected] [email protected] 2 International Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication Space, Power, Identity TABLE OF CONTENTS Ayad A. ABOOD Trauma and Identity in Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Toni Morrison's Sula .................... 4 Andreea-Victoriţa CHIRIAC (BECEANU), Adina CIUGUREANU The Role of Space in Character Development (Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield and Ion Creangă’s Memories of My Boyhood) ........................................................................................... 12 Elena ENCIU The Portrait of a Steamy, (Un)Corseted Sub-Culture ................................................................... 22 Adina CIUGUREANU, Fatima FARHOUD Between Semiosis and Social Practice: Fairclough’s Version of Critical Discourse Analysis .... 31 Ioana RADULESCU, Adina CIUGUREANU Toni Morrison’s Jazz: Hunting and Hiding in the Urban Jungle .................................................. 39 Sînziana POPESCU The Trauma of Re-Location in August Wilson’s The American Century Cycle ......................... 49 Florian Andrei VLAD The Vagaries Of Identity And The Power Of Poetry: Ted Hughes’s Tales From Ovid And The Anxiety Of Influence .................................................................................................................... 57 2 Bianca TANASESCU, Eduard VLAD Identitary Resistance to Confinement and Conformity: Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest ............................................................................................................................................... 67 Adriana VOICU, Eduard VLAD Primal Energy Vs. Intimations of Power Games In Ted Hughes’s Animal Poems ...................... 76 Book Review: James Augerot and Ileana Marin on Ideology, Identity, and the US: Crossroads, Freeways, Collisions, eds. Eduard Vlad, Adina Ciugureanu, Nicoleta Stanca, Peter Lang, 2019. ....................................................................................................................................................... 86 Notes On Contributors .................................................................................................................. 88 3 TRAUMA AND IDENTITY IN ALICE WALKER'S THE COLOR PURPLE AND TONI MORRISON'S SULA Ayad A. Abood Al- Saymary Abstract: The present study explores the relationship of trauma to identity, with some reference to eco-consciousness, in African-American Literature. The literary texts chosen for analysis are Alice Walker's "The Color Purple and Toni Morrison's "Sula". The study begins with defining trauma, identity, and eco-consciousness and then analyzes the two novels accordingly. The study assumes that, more often than not, traumatic experiences have a negative effect on the identity of the traumatized persons. In some particular situations, a traumatic event may have a positive effect on the traumatized person and hence strengthens him/her. It all depends on the identity of the person before and after the experience. The relationship of trauma to identity is reciprocal in the sense that trauma can affect and shape an individual's identity and that an identity can be redefined after a traumatic experience. Learning how to cope with trauma rather than being overwhelmed by it is one of the options that some of Walker’s and Morrison’s “strong” characters are faced with. Keywords: Trauma, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), identity, group identity, in-group, out-group The world is overwhelmed with catastrophic events which are caused by war, terrorism, rape, discrimination, not to mention the natural disasters. Mostly, these tragic events, in addition to the physical wounds they cause, may leave emotional and psychological pains in the survivors as well. Actually, no one could exactly express, feel, or understand the trauma experience as the traumatized person could do. To speak out a trauma experience needs more courage in some cultures. A raped woman or an abused child will find it very difficult, sometimes impossible, to express what happened through language. In cases as such, the physical pain will leave a psychological impact on the traumatized person. For a number of decades, definitions of trauma were only restricted to include military combat veterans who participated in World War I and World War II. It is only after 1980 that trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have been redefined to include the experience of raped women, abused children, domestic violence in the same way as the 4 experience of soldiers regardless of the severity of the offence. Judith Herman’s groundbreaking Trauma and Recovery, published in 1992, asserts that women who have survived rape often experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in a way similar to men and women who have survived combat regardless of the severity of the actions or the events surrounding them. Drawing on Freud's principles that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and wishes of the author, Cathy Caruth, a pioneering figure in the field of trauma studies, in Unclaimed Experience, expands her theory of trauma in literature. Caruth defines trauma as "an overwhelming experience of sudden or catastrophic events in which the response to the event occurs in the often delayed, uncontrolled repetitive appearance of hallucinations and other intrusive phenomena" (Caruth 1996:11). Hunt (2010: 44) believes that besides being psychological, trauma is interpersonal, social and political. Therefore, the traumatized persons should include political and social elements in their trauma narratives. Narratives about history and politics are much equally important as about the psychological state of the narrator. In this respect, it is very important for the researcher who is interested in the study of trauma to understand the politics and the history that the narrator is discussing. The present sense of “Identity”, as many scholars believe, is derived from the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson's concept of an “Identity Crisis”. Erikson's term of identity crisis is defined as referring to instabilities and uncertainties affecting the early development of children and teenagers, while the author also posits “the return of some forms of identity crisis in the later stages of the life cycle (Erikson 1968: 135). This definition was a starting point for many scholars to define and study identity. Hogg and Abrams (1988:2) define identity as "people's concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how they relate to others." Actually, this broad definition only implies an individual's conceptions about his/her own personality with regard to other people. Other scholars draw a distinction between personal identity on the one hand, and social or collective identity on the other. Deng (1995:1)