“DAEMONIC” FORCES: TRAUMA AND INTERTEXTUALITY IN FANTASY LITERATURE by BRANDY BALL BLAKE (Under the Direction of Hugh Ruppersburg) ABSTRACT While the number of critical studies of fantasy has been growing since the 1970s, few critics have focused on the interplay between works of fantasy and trauma, its symptoms, and its theories. In this dissertation, I examine the appearance of trauma in numerous works of the genre, showing the prevalence of traumatic experiences and neuroses and illustrating fantasy’s ability to focus on and significantly address serious real-world issues, including violence, death, and other traumatic events. More specifically, the essays included in this dissertation explore the ways in which the presence of trauma in fantasy stories utilizes, comments upon, and enhances the traditions and conventions of the fantasy genre, which because of the connection between fantasy and psychoanalysis often have a psychological subtext. Focusing on a range of work in trauma theory from Freud and Jung to Cathy Caruth, Donald Kalsched, and Anne Whitehead, I demonstrate that trauma in fantasy stories uses intertextuality, in the sense of both extensive allusions to previous works and the repetition of formal genre conventions, to illustrate the daemonic nature of trauma, particularly the fixation of the hero on a traumatic event and the feelings of helplessness and compulsion that he experiences as he proceeds towards his heroic destiny. In fantasy characters from works such as The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter series, C. S. Lewis’s Til We Have Faces, and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, this fixation manifests through the repetition of fantasy traditions—such as the ongoing battle between good and evil, the compulsion of the hero to save others, the recurrence of functional characterization, and the representation of the journey archetype—that mirror the symptoms of trauma. Furthermore, while fantasy has often been considered escapist, the connections between trauma theory, fantasy, and psychoanalysis highlight the serious issues surrounding trauma by illustrating the hero’s struggle, allowing the audience to better understand the overwhelming forces of traumatic experience. INDEX WORDS: Trauma; Trauma theory; Fantasy; Intertextuality; Genre conventions; Sigmund Freud; Carl Jung; Hero; Escapist; Harry Potter; C. S. Lewis; Lewis Carroll; J. K. Rowling; J. R. R. Tolkien; Ursula LeGuin “DAEMONIC” FORCES: TRAUMA AND INTERTEXTUALITY IN FANTASY LITERATURE by BRANDY BALL BLAKE B.A., Emory University, 2000 M.A., Georgia State University, 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2009 © 2009 Brandy Ball Blake All Rights Reserved “DAEMONIC” FORCES: TRAUMA AND INTERTEXTUALITY IN FANTASY LITERATURE by BRANDY BALL BLAKE Major Professor: Hugh Ruppersburg Committee: Roxanne Eberle Jonathan Evans Richard Menke Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2009 iv DEDICATION To my loving husband Matthew, who has taken care of me and supported me throughout my journey. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation for Dr. Hugh Ruppersburg, who has guided me through the dissertation process and helped me with every detail. In addition, I wish to thank my committee members, Dr. Roxanne Eberle and Dr. Jonathan Evans, both of whom have been extremely supportive and encouraging. I would particularly like to thank Dr. Richard Menke, who has been a great help to me throughout my career at the University of Georgia and who just happened to mention Cathy Caruth offhand in class one day, indirectly leading me to begin researching this topic. Thank you to Top Shelf Productions for granting me permission to use images from Alan Moore’s Lost Girls, which appear in my fifth chapter. Finally, I am extremely grateful to my friend Elizabeth Norris, who has been helping me with research for the past few years; to my husband Matthew, who has proofread everything I have written for this dissertation and has offered me his never-ending support; and to the members of my family, all of whom have listened intently to the difficulties I have experienced with this dissertation and have offered me comforting words and praise. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………….v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………1 2 OVERCOMING EVIL: TRAUMA AND THE HERO……………………………..20 3 THE PROTECTOR AND THE PERSECUTOR: HEROISM AND TRAUMA IN THE HARRY POTTER SERIES…………………………………………….….70 4 FUNCTION, ARCHETYPE AND THE SELF: TRAUMA AND CHARACTERIZATION IN C. S. LEWIS’S TIL WE HAVE FACES………..133 5 ENTRAPMENT IN WONDERLAND: TRAUMA AND INTERTEXTUALITY IN MODERN ADAPTATIONS OF ALICE………………………………………178 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………………..231 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The goal of this study is not to define fantasy but to explore a recurring pattern within it. While the number of critical studies of fantasy and the fantastic in literature have been growing since the 1970s, few critics have focused on the interplay between works of fantasy and trauma, its symptoms, and its theories. In this dissertation, I attempt to fill that gap by examining the appearance of trauma in numerous works of fantasy, showing the prevalence of traumatic moments and illustrating fantasy’s ability to focus on and significantly address serious real-world issues, including violence, death, and other traumatic events. More specifically, however, the essays included in this dissertation will explore the ways in which the presence of trauma in fantasy stories utilizes, comments upon, and enhances the traditions and conventions of the fantasy genre. Throughout this dissertation, I examine the presentation and manifestation of trauma in fantasy characters and environments and how that manifestation connects to intertextuality, in the sense both of extensive allusions to previous works and the repetition of formal genre conventions. The meaning of the word “trauma” focused solely on physical wounds until the development of psychology in the mid to late nineteenth century, when the definition expanded to include “psychic injury, esp. one caused by emotional shock the memory of which is repressed and remains unhealed” (“trauma”). Psychological trauma and its various causes have since come under focus through studies on hysteria, train accidents, World War I combat, and more recent examinations of Holocaust survivors, domestic abuse victims, and 9-11 witnesses; after much 2 research psychologists have expanded and clarified the definition of trauma. According to Judith Herman in her book Trauma and Recovery: Unlike commonplace misfortunes, traumatic events generally involve threats to life or bodily integrity, or a close personal encounter with violence and death. They confront human beings with the extremities of helplessness and terror, and evoke the responses of catastrophe. According to the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, the common denominator of psychological trauma is a feeling of “intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and threat of annihilation.” (33) While many different types of events can be considered traumatic, psychologists and critics note that the resulting feeling of powerlessness is a common factor, emphasizing that “[a]t the moment of trauma, the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force” (33). Throughout this dissertation, I examine the ways in which works of fantasy present this feeling of helplessness, the “overwhelming force” that causes it, and the aftereffects, which can include a traumatic neurosis such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Since Posttraumatic Stress Disorder was first defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in 1980, psychological and critical studies of trauma have increased in number and importance. Cathy Caruth emphasizes in Trauma: Explorations in Memory that “. many people have recognized the urgency of learning more about the traumatic reaction to violent events and about the means of helping to alleviate suffering” (vii). Saturated with media’s attention to war, terrorism, and natural disaster and with focus on personal trauma (abuse, death, and accidents) on primetime television shows, people today must learn about trauma in order to avoid becoming insensitive to it. Fantasy provides interesting 3 opportunities to learn about and relate to trauma through a medium that combines escape and reality, exciting adventure and thought-provoking narrative. Fantasy has traditionally been categorized as escape literature, allowing its audience to leave the mundane world and its painful circumstances for one of magic and wonder. This is seen as one of the values of fantasy by many of its fans and one of the problems of fantasy by some of its detractors. Even academics who defend the literary merit of fantasy must address its use as an escape—for ill or for good. For example, in her book, Fantasy and Mimesis, Kathryn Hume defends fantasy by claiming that not all of it is escapist. In Hume’s opinion, escapist fantasy, particularly “tale[s] of conquest and adventure” (59) such as Robert E. Howard’s Conan series and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, lacks substance: “Escape literature has seldom fared well with commentators because it needs no explications and provides no opportunity for sophisticated analysis. However, the hostility engendered by simplicity should not be carried