“It has stayed with me”: Using fiction to explore trauma
Content warning: This article mentions sexual assault.
Those who experience trauma can seek help in various ways, through therapy or creative outlets, and fiction is no exception.
In fiction, traumatic events are often depicted as a jumping-off point for a protagonist or hero’s story - whether that’s watching Bruce Wayne’s parents die before he can fight crime as Batman, or witnessing the attempted murder of Uma Thurman as the Bride in Kill Bill before she seeks revenge.
These depictions of traumatic events are often the precursor to a character’s descent into revenge, madness, or both, but they don’t have to be the only stories we see.
In her doctoral thesis published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Dr Lynn Gumb defines an ‘ordinary hero’ that can emerge in fiction as a “person who, despite the challenges of trauma, continues to live an ordinary life” and doesn’t follow the well-worn path to madness or revenge. Instead, the individual can choose to “alter the landscape of their own lives” after trauma and pursue recovery.
P. J. McKay, the author of The Telling Time, uses traumatic experiences from her own life to explore this recovery process, as women from two generations navigate the Croatian immigrant experience, family secrets and backpacking as a rite of passage.
“I know that my personal experience while backpacking in the 1980s, especially in a country like Yugoslavia, where there was such a chasm in the way men viewed Western women (fuelled of course by Western movies and songs) would be familiar territory for many young women,” she told OverSixty. “For me, novels that speak of shared experiences, or situations which feel believable, resonate most.
“The backpacking experience has been a rite of passage for many, particularly in Australasia and I know many have experienced unwanted sexual attention. My experience was a close call. It has stayed with me and has felt like a significant turning point in my life.”
As difficult as it can be for survivors to witness these moments, stories like The Telling Time keep these traumatic situations at the forefront of our minds, especially as these situations continue to happen.
“I thought it was important not to shy away from the reality of sexual assault and to explore the impact of this on friendships and why sometimes (often) it seems best to hold close and not disclose what happened,” McKay adds.
However, some argue that the focus of recovery stories should be on what happens after the traumatic event, and how individuals can find truth and healing despite their experiences.
“There seems to be no doubt that trauma can stand in the way of finding truth and healing,” McKay says.
“It remains to be seen whether society today, with its broader expectations and openness around sexual relationships, and less traditional male and female roles, will alow for more open conversations by those who have suffered trauma, particularly sexual trauma.”
In an interview with ABC’s 7.30, American activist and founder of the #Metoo movement Tarana Burke said conversations around trauma should shift, as the retelling of traumatic events comes with more costs than benefits.
"We urge survivors to share their story, so you're re-traumatising not only the person but the person hearing that. There's not a tremendous amount of value in hearing the story, there's so much value in the hearing what happens after." – @taranaburke #abc730
— abc730 (@abc730) October 19, 2021
“We urge survivors to share their story, so you’re re-traumatising not only the person but the person hearing that,” she said.
“There’s not a tremendous amount of value in hearing the story, there’s so much value in hearing what happens after.”
As the conversations around trauma continue to change, it may be that having to witness these events becomes less necessary, and that we no longer need to share them to prevent future generations from experiencing them.
Image: Getty Images