The Treatment of Trauma and its Psychological Effects in Holocaust Literature

Abstract

Trauma theories first appeared in the twentieth century. This century is beset by battles, crises, revolutions, and other calamities. As a result, those who left this century had to deal with a plethora of stressful events. Literature is regarded as a mirror of reality. As a result, all the painful memories of the twentieth century are mirrored in the works of art produced during that period. The word "trauma" was first used in Cathy Caruth's Unclaimed Experiences: Trauma Narrative and History. Traumatic events always affect our minds, so this theory has some social underpinnings. “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” by Sigmund Freud is the source of this philosophy. This theory connects human pain events to our developmental history. However, we will see these in people of all ages. Shoshana Felman, a well-known American critic, and 21st-century scholar describes the twenty-first century as "a century of traumas". Her topic was group traumas, and she wrote a lot of testimonies about it. Trauma theory mostly explores how traumatic memories are reflected in works of fiction, as well as how writers' traumatic experiences are reflected in their works. In reality, the publishing of two critical works drew the attention of the world to trauma theory. They are Unclaimed Experiences: Trauma Narrative and History by Cathy Caruth and Worlds of Hurt by Kali Tal. Trauma Literature is something we have been reading a lot lately.
“Trauma is a reaction to a highly distressing or upsetting situation that overwhelms a person's capacity to cope, induces feelings of helplessness, and reduces one's sense of self and ability to feel a full spectrum of emotions and experiences” and also “Trauma is when a person's memory is damaged as a result of one or more events that trigger excessive levels of stress that outweigh the person's capacity to deal with or integrate the feelings involved, potentially leading to significant long- term negative effects”. Trauma, in the sense that it is a common phenomenon, will, of course, always is with us. Trauma theory's insights have had a major influence on our understanding of the arts in general and of the humanities in particular.