Essay On Trauma Theory

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PROBLEM STATEMENT Exploring the traumatic effects of Group Areas Act of 1950 on the coloured population of District Six and surrounding suburbs Roy H Du Pre underscores the anguish that played out as the authorities purposely dislocated them from their homes and dispersed them to unfamiliar locations. In his analysis he evokes the absolute desperation that some people displayed as the relocations advanced at a steady pace: As the axe dangled over their heads, the coloured people became obsessed about the impending removals. For many people the eviction notice was a death notice. Many died of a broken heart long before the bulldozers and trucks arrived (Du Pre: 83). This desperation is mirrored elsewhere in the research of Henry Trotter : Coloureds responded in various ways to …show more content…

In the textual analysis I undertake, I will engage with the narratives through the lens of Trauma theory. Thereafter I provide a comprehensive analysis of Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma theory and apply this theory to the texts that I have examined. Throughout this examination I will engage with the various modes of trauma transmission and assess whether these are discernable in the narrative. Utilizing the findings of this part of the research I will relate them to the question of what effect the transmission of trauma had intergenerationally. Thereafter, I will engage with the theme of coloured identity, paying close attention to the conditions under which they were formed in the first generation. I will then consider the changing political and social landscape in which second and third generation coloured subjects form and live out their identity. Finally, I will consider the effects of intergenerational transmission of trauma on contemporary identity formation among