Exploring the unspoken wounds of genocide trauma
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Date
2023
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Publisher
UMT, Lahore
Abstract
The research aims to explore the use of literature and art as an ointment to traumatic wounds present in the memory of Lithuanians through Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory in Ruta Sepety’s Between Shades of Gray. The objective of this research is to unveil the impact of the gruesome and traumatic experiences of the Holocaust on the unconscious of individuals through microscopic analysis of the characters, Lina, and Jonas in Between Shades of Gray. Another objective of this thesis is to unfold how the traumatic events of the genocide of the Baltic people have influenced the writer, Sepetys, to rewrite the poignant scenarios of history as a catharsis from the trauma residing in the memory of Lithuanians. The study scrutinizes the impact of trauma in shattering the identity of characters and traces of traumatic events in contemporary individuals of the same cultural groups. The thesis fills the research gap as Between Shades of Gray has formerly not been scrutinized and analyzed as a source of hope and catharsis from the trauma embedded in the consciousness of Lithuanians. Emphasis on the Trauma Theory of Cathy Caruth is the secondary source of this dissertation. This thesis unleashes the fact that extreme traumatic experiences of individuals fracture both language and consciousness by leaving a mark on the psyche of traumatized people. This research is qualitative and based on the information collected from different articles and various other sources.