ORCID
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5076-5576
Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA in English
Department
English
First Advisor
Rachel Hollander
Second Advisor
Steven Alvarez
Abstract
This thesis will examine Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle to examine the colonial trauma and loss found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Jamaica Kincaid’s Autobiography of My Mother, not just on a character level, but in a much larger colonial context. Some scholars have suggested that Shelley’s monster is a symbol of a colonized other (due to his appearance and certain features he has). Kincaid’s Xuela is for sure a colonized other because of the heritage of her mother. This thesis explores their abandonment by their creators as the abandonment of colonized nations from their colonizers. Even now, formerly colonized nations still have remnants of their oppression, and in many ways, they are still oppressed by the trauma of the loss of their history and invasion of their cultures.
Recommended Citation
Rene, Leana, "COLONIAL TRAUMA AND TESTIMONY IN MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN AND JAMAICA KINCAID’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY MOTHER" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 17.
https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations/17