LANDSCAPES OF WAR AND TRAUMA: EXPLORING SPACE, PLACE, AND IDENTITY IN TIM O'BRIEN'S THE THINGS THEY CARRIED AND LESLIE MARMON SILKO'S CEREMONY
Abstract
This thesis explores the ways in which war literature trauma, space, and identity through a comparative analysis of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. Both novels expand the boundaries of the genre by challenging traditional linear narratives and embracing postmodern techniques that mirror the fragmented nature of traumatic memory. Drawing on trauma theory, including the works of Michelle Balaev, Cathy Caruth, and Marianne Hirsch, and the spatial theory of Yi-Fu Tuan, this study examines how landscapes in both texts serve not merely as backdrops, but as active participants in shaping personal and cultural identity. O’Brien’s narrative highlights the disorientation and alienation experienced by soldiers during and after the Vietnam War presenting the reader with the nature of truth within a war narrative, while Silko’s novel frames trauma within Indigenous storytelling traditions, emphasizing collective healing and reconnection to land. This thesis argues that storytelling functions as both a method of survival and a means of reconstructing identity in the wake of war, and that space and place are crucial elements in understanding the psychological and cultural dimensions of trauma in contemporary war literature.
