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Poetry, Nature and Trauma during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Intersectional Examination of the Traumatised Subject and their Relationship to Nature

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Author

  • Diana Iuga

Summary, in English

This thesis explores the ways in which ‘‘Ides of March, 2020’’ (2020) by Didi Jackson, ‘‘Sing a Darkness’’ (2020) by Carl Phillips, and ‘‘Desert Lily’’ (2020) by Rigoberto González engage with concepts of nature and trauma. All three poems reveal poignant elaborations on human position and relationship to nature, and how nature might help the speakers dealing with the traumatic present of the pandemic. My thesis has two aims. One, it sets out to examine the three poems in terms of how they portray the nature and human relationship to nature. Two, I inquire how the three poems relate trauma and potential for healing to their concepts of nature. It is my hypothesis that an intersectional – Romantic Humanist, Ecocritical, and Trauma theoretical perspective - may help advance our understandings of the poems. Ultimately, this thesis shows how the Ecocritical and Trauma theoretical assumptions about uncertainty and the unspeakable may help advancing our understanding of the speakers’ relationship to trauma as well as to nature. The poems suggest that ambiguous concepts and understandings of human relationship to nature and trauma might be the best way in which one can understand the complexities of living in a time of crisis.

Department/s

  • Master's Programme: Literature - Culture - Media

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Document type

Student publication for Master's degree (two years)

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Keywords

  • Poetry
  • Nature
  • Trauma
  • COVID-19
  • Pandemic
  • Romantic Humanism
  • Ecocriticism
  • Trauma Theory
  • Uncertainty
  • Unspeakable

Supervisor

  • Cian Duffy (Professor)