The Importance Of Trauma In Literature

From civil wars, to world wars, to ethnic wars, catastrophes have defined the period of human history from the 1800s to the present day. The trauma that unavoidably results from such tragedies is evident in the literature of contemporary authors, as they explore their feelings of nostalgia, sadness and loss. Emily Dickinson, Bertolt Brecht and Kazuo Ishiguro each address such emotions in their works, and provide their audience with different methods to cope with trauma. While Dickinson offers seclusion and self-reflection as methods to deal with personal tragedy, Brecht suggests that stoicism and the repression of emotion are the means by which one can endure trauma. Finally, Ishiguro addresses collective trauma, and cautions against such repression

One of Brecht 's most celebrated plays, Mother Courage and her Children, tells the tale of a mother and her three children living through the Thirty Years ' War. Scene after scene, Mother Courage trudges through war-torn villages with her wagon ever in tow, witnessing at every turn the horrors of war. The war claims the life of all three of her children individually, and the circumstances of each death are truly tragic: her eldest son, Eilif, is executed for committing war crimes for which he was formerly applauded; her youngest son, Swiss Cheese, is murdered by the Catholics after he attempts to return a cashbox to his general; and her daughter, Kattrin, is shot as she sacrifices herself to save the lives of children in a near-by village. The war, as depicted in the play, seems to be a never-ending, hopeless affair. This pervasive feeling of despair and sadness present throughout the play is unsurprising when one considers the context in which it was written. Brecht completed Mother Courage and her Children in 1939, shortly after Adolf Hitler and his German troops invaded Poland, initiating World War Two. As author Veronica Baxter asserts, "Brecht was living in a world decimated by war, the Great Depression, postwar chaos, hunger, and exile" (260). Brecht was also a direct target of Nazi persecution, and, fearing for his safety, fled Germany in 1933. As a teenager, Brecht experienced the horrors of World War One, and it is unsurprising that he faced the onset of World War Two with utter dread (Baxter 260). His sense of hopelessness, anger and grief at the affairs of the world are reflected in his play Mother Courage and her Children, which he arguably used as an outlet to explore his personal anxiety at the prospect of another World War. Indeed, the dismal, dreary setting of the play represents the world in which Brecht