University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School April 2018 Seeing Trauma: The Known and the Hidden in Nineteenth-Century Literature Alisa M. DeBorde University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Scholar Commons Citation DeBorde, Alisa M., "Seeing Trauma: The Known and the Hidden in Nineteenth-Century Literature" (2018). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7141 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Seeing Trauma: The Known and Hidden in Nineteenth-Century Literature By Alisa M. DeBorde A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Marty Gould, Ph.D. Laura L. Runge, Ph.D. Susan Mooney, Ph.D. Brook Sadler, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 29, 2018 Keywords: trauma, nineteenth-century, shock, dissociation, memory Copyright © 2018, Alisa M. DeBorde DEDICATION To David, Mariva, Maximillian, Cosette, and Fantine ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From my mother who required that each of her six children “bring a book” wherever our travels took us, to my father who patiently read my stories and essays and taught me to value the nuances of words, to my siblings who modeled a love of learning, I am thankful for an upbringing rich in words, stories, and books. Since high school, I have dreamed of earning a Ph.D. in literature, but back then, I had no idea how that kind of goal could be achieved. Many years later, several people have helped me make this journey and I am full of gratitude for their support and help. In the process of selecting the topic of my dissertation and writing its chapters, I have had much help and guidance. I am very thankful for Dr. Gould’s willingness to chair my project. His commentary on my drafts often offered just the insight needed to crystalize an idea or open my thinking to a direction that would strengthen my arguments. Likewise, Dr. Runge, Dr. Mooney, and Dr. Rogers offered feedback that improved both my writing and my ideas. I am indebted to all my committee members for the time and expertise they invested in my work, and I am especially thankful for Dr. Sadler who joined my committee late in the process. Southeastern University has been a support on several fronts. For a long time, I have taught at SEU while I was also a student at USF, and I am thankful for the support of my colleagues and the institution as I managed this dual focus. Additionally, my students have been an ongoing source of encouragement. I have been blessed by their interest in my project and care for me and my family. Finally, I need to thank my family. Dave, your humor kept me laughing as I worked and your support helped to clear the way for me to have time to do this work. Mariva and Max, my biguns, you pushed me to finish this project when I was feeling most weary. Cosette and Fantine, my littluns, I’ve been in school for most of your life—thank you for reading alongside me, waiting for me “to finish the paragraph,” and cheering for the completion of this project. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ................................................................................................................................ iii Chapter 1: What Literature Can Do: A Literary Representation of Trauma ...................................1 i. Teasing the Knot ...............................................................................................................2 ii. A Brief History ................................................................................................................4 iii. The Nineteenth-Century and Trauma .............................................................................6 iv. Looking Forward: The Twentieth-Century View ...........................................................9 v. Bringing Together Dickens, Du Maurier, Brougham, Brontë, and Barrett Browning ...........................................................................................................13 vi. Chapter Summaries .......................................................................................................14 vii. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................18 Chapter 2: Trauma in Great Expectations: Authenticating Experience, Moderating Empathy ....19 i. Introduction .....................................................................................................................19 ii. The Wounded Mind and Character ................................................................................21 iii. An Exigency for Trauma: Publication ..........................................................................26 iv. Pip’s Multifaceted Trauma ...........................................................................................30 v. Narrative as Record: Pip’s Belated Processing ..............................................................40 vi. Narrative Voice: Stratifications and Silences ...............................................................46 vii. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................50 Chapter 3: Visual Art and Musical Performance: Traumatic Representation in Trilby ................52 i. Introduction .....................................................................................................................52 ii. Reading Trilby: A Model of Enthrallment .....................................................................56 iii. Tension to Trauma: Loyalties to Class and Nation ......................................................61 iv. Parallel Traumas and the Self Inverted .........................................................................64 v. Painting and Singing: Art as Mediator ...........................................................................74 vi. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................83 Chapter 4: “There’s a mysterious mystery hanging about”: The Cloaked Representation of Trauma in John Brougham’s Jane Eyre .......................................................................85 i. Introduction .....................................................................................................................85 ii. Brougham’s Adaptation Among the Adaptations ..........................................................87 iii. Adaptation as Trauma: Knowledge and Form ..............................................................91 iv. Melodramatic Excess and Redirected Traumatic Symptoms .......................................92 v. Focalizing Excess: Visual Pauses ..................................................................................95 vi. Intertextuality: Bridging and Disrupting Connections ..................................................98 i vii. Intertextuality as Repression, Repetition and Fractured Time ..................................101 viii. Conclusion ................................................................................................................111 Chapter 5: Seeing Her Clearly: Trauma as Interpretive Tool in “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point ...........................................................................................................................113 i. Introduction ...................................................................................................................113 ii. A Case for Applying Trauma to “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” ................116 iii. Placing “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” Amid Abolitionist Poetry .............120 iv. The Limits of Classical Trauma Theory .....................................................................127 v. Toward a Reading of “Runaway Slave” via a Theory of Slavery-as-Trauma .............131 vi. Hearing her Voice: The Dramatic Monologue ...........................................................141 vii. Cultivating Empathy ..................................................................................................149 viii. Conclusion ................................................................................................................152 Chapter 6: What Trauma Can Do ................................................................................................154 i. Guiding Questions ........................................................................................................154 ii. Denominators as Discoveries ......................................................................................155 iii. In Summation .............................................................................................................155 Works Cited ..............................................................................................................................161 ii ABSTRACT Trauma as an official diagnosis first entered the DSM in 1980 and literary theorists began employing the term to discuss literature not too long after. Since the 1990s, theorists have