The Portrayal Of Memory, Trauma And Therapy In Post-Apartheid South African Plays: A Study Of Lara Foot Newton's Reach! And Craig Higginson's Dream Of The Dog

📄 Project Abstract

Using Lara Foot Newton's Reach! and Craig Higginson's Dream of the Dog, this study explores the manner in which this selected South African playwrights deploy the themes of memory, trauma and therapy in their works as a means of recounting the horrific experiences of the apartheid regime, and the effects of these experiences on personal, social and political life and relationships in post-apartheid South Africa. Since Literary themes are sometimes burdened with open ended meanings and motifs. They are therefore always open to interpretations guided by concepts and theories of literature. The study proceeds on the assumption that the selected plays like other Post-apartheid South African plays embody sensitive issues that relate to memory, trauma and therapy. This is achieved through the use of Freudian psychoanalytic perspective which facilitate an affinity between the influence of memory and trauma on an individual's social behaviour and literary creativity. It also investigates how i...