Dickens Writes Trauma
Dickens Writes Trauma

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"

Author(s): Magdalena Pypeć
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Dickens; Edwin Drood; colonialism; trauma; PTSD; Ceylon under British rule
Summary/Abstract: This article examines Dickens’s depiction of PTSD symptoms in connection with his country’s aggressive imperial actions. With a colonial other suffering from a pathological mental and emotional condition, the novel portrays colonialism as an inveterately traumatising phenomenon, the young Ceylonese’s trauma narrative being indicative of the collective race trauma afflicted on a larger community by colonial violence. Apart from portraying the traumatic inner landscape of his character, the novelist is equally engaged in offering ways of healing and recovery.

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