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Abstract: This article is devoted to the topic of trauma and its reflection in the speech of children and teenagers in modern English-language literary works. Referring to the works of Russian and foreign researchers, the authors consider the concept of trauma in general and in literary studies in particular, as well as its rise and development. An increasing interest in literature about the theme of childhood and the depiction of children’s world is highlighted, as well as the fact that writers choose juveniles that solve adult problems as narrators. The methods that the authors use are as follows: sociological, cultural-historical and social, as well as the method of linguistic analysis. The collection of material was carried out by the method of continuous sampling. The authors find out how writers portray trauma in juveniles through their speech and worldview. Modern Irish and American novels are analyzed where the narrators are children and teenagers who have experienced some psychological and physical traumas: Room by E. Donoghue (2010), All the Lost Things by M. Sacks (2019), and Infinite Jest by D. F. Wallace (1996). As a result of the analysis of the speech of two child narrators aged 5 and 7 and a 17–18-year-old teenage narrator, the following features of the childhood trauma reflection are revealed: 1) the use of the opposition “inside” and “outside” which both determine the physical location of the characters, and their mental state; 2) Open ending and only a hint of the narrators overcoming their trauma. The process of experiencing trauma by a juvenile narrator is observed, but growing up and the consequences of traumas are not shown, which is the novelty of this approach to describing trauma.

About the author(s) :

Natalia N. Nikolina

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin

(Ekaterinburg, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-6829

 

Violetta A. Kaiavo

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin

(Ekaterinburg, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3416-798X

 

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s : The research funding from the Ural Institute of Humanities UrFU (“My first grant” Program) is gratefully acknowledged.

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 23.04.2023; date of publication: 31.10.2023

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