Azrara Lynda
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Date
2025
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
The present study investigates the issue of trauma within two selected literary works: Diana
Abu Jaber‘s Crescent, (2003) and Joseph O‘Neill‘s Netherland (2008). The aim of this research
paper has been to explore how trauma shapes an individual’s identity in context of
displacement. Relying on Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory, this dissertation analyzed
how the novels portray their protagonists’ struggles with their identity formation in two different
contexts: post- Gulf War and post-9/11 America. Our research is structured into two main
chapters, the Imaginary, the Real, and the Symbolic order in the two selected narratives. The
analysis of these two literary works together resulted in two key findings. First, it confirmed
how trauma significantly alters self –perception, pushing individuals to navigate their identity
through a fragmented self in diasporic dislocation. Second, the research revealed that identity
formation is a complex process of reconciliation between internal desires and external
expectations through language, trauma, and social structures.
Description
73p. ; (+CD-Rom)
Keywords
trauma, identity formation, Lacanian psychoanalysis, displacement, alienation
Citation
Literature and Interdisc iplinary A pproach