"Mens kan nie altyd lag nie, mens moet soms huil ook": die verwerking van trauma deur skrywende karakters in drie romans van Marita van der Vyver

Abstract

Characters making sense of trauma they experience by writing about such trauma - whether through fairy tales, diary entries, postcards, letters or e-mails - is a reoccurring phenomenon in the oeuvre of Marita van der Vyver, which hasn't received the necessary literary critical attention. With that in mind, the focus of this study will be the way in which three characters i) Griet Swart in Griet skryf 'n sprokie, ii) Hester Human in Stiltetyd and iii) Clara Brand in Dis koue kos, skat, process personal traumas by using self-created narratives in answer to these personal trauma. More specifically this study will focus on narrative form - fairy tales, diary entries, postcards, letters and/or e-mails - chosen by each character and the manner in which these narrative forms influence processes of acceptance or healing taking place after the experience of personal trauma. Firstly this study will focus on the nature and extent of traumatic experiences each of these characters underwent. Secondly, the character's reactions to their respective trauma experiences are comparatively discussed. Further, the narrative forms chosen by each character to process personal trauma are discussed and evaluated according to the success, or failure, of this chosen narrative form in the processing of trauma. Methodologically this study is underpinned by a number of movements and views within the discipline of trauma theory, with specific focus on the narrative processing of trauma (especially scriptotherapy). Further, supplementary theoretical perspectives of Turner's theory on liminality will come under focus as well as the link it has to the processing of trauma. As in the case of liminal liminal experience, the processing of trauma also includes a movement through subsequent phases. A synthesis of the before mentioned trauma theories and Turner's liminal theory can be seen as a useful reference by which the processing of trauma can be discussed in the Afrikaans literature, specifically within the framework of this study - which comprises of three novels by Marita van der Vyver.