Thesis (D.Phil (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes abstract in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-92). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

From Introduction: The 'forensic aesthetic' presents the viewer with traces and debris - the residue that haunts sites of transgression, violence and death. In his book Scene of the Crime, art critic and curator Ralph Rugoff (1997:62) defines the forensic aesthetic as follows: "Inextricably linked to an unseen history, this type of art embodies a fractured relationship to time. Like a piece of evidence, its present appearance is haunted by an indeterminate past, which we confront in the alienated form of fossilized and fragmented remnants." Through its play on seemingly insignificant detail&, clues and traces, the forensic aesthetic suggests that meaning is dispersed, fragmentary and uncertain. According to Rugoff (1997:17), the forensic aesthetic "aims to engage the viewer in a process of mental reconstruction". It compels the viewer to adopt a 'forensic gaze' : to sift through broken narratives and fragments of information, reading the artwork as one might read a sample of evidence. Rugoff (1997:62) argues that: "[S]uch art insists that 'content is something that can't be seen' ... it requires that the viewer arrive at an interpretation by examining traces and marks and reading them as clues. In addition, it is marked by a strong sense of aftermath. ... Taken as a whole, this art puts us in a position akin to that of [the] forensic anthropologist or scientist, forcing us to speculatively piece together histories that remain largely invisible to the eye." One might argue that some of the earliest known examples of the forensic aesthetic in art presented themselves in the Renaissance period in the form of the pseudo-forensic anatomical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. In his Studies of the Hand (fig. 1), for example, Da Vinci methodically represents the underlying structures of the human hand in a series of drawings that are scattered intermittently across the page. The remainder of the page is covered with hand-written notations. In this work, the artist approaches the human body with a scientific, almost forensic, gaze. Here the body is presented in fragments, rather than as a whole. According to Rugoff (1997:86&88), the forensic aesthetic addresses the body "not as a coherent whole but as a site of prior actions ... as a dispersed territory of clues and traces". When read in terms of the mode of the forensic aesthetic, Da Vinci's Studies of the Hand may be said to look at the human body as forensic object. In this way, this work may be said to speak of the manner in which the forensic gaze operates in the context of the artwork. Throughout the following essay, I discuss the various ways in which the forensic aesthetic manifests itself in art. I have necessarily been selective in the artworks that I have chosen for discussion, as this topic is very broad indeed. In Chapter One, I explore the tradition of the forensic aesthetic in art by way of a select number of artworks. This chapter focuses on investigating the way in which these works, whether consciously or unconsciously, speak of associations between violence and representation through the mode of the forensic aesthetic. The contents of Chapter Two concentrate on the work of South African artist Kathryn Smith. Smith's work may be said to possess a forensic quality, in that it references forensic practices and techniques. Her work has not been the topic of a lengthy monograph, but it has been considered in various exhibition catalogues, reviews and articles. For example, an essay by Colin Richards entitled 'Dead Certainties' (2004) investigates the forensic quality of Smith's imagery in terms of its play on notions of the trace. Similarly, an article by Maureen de Jager, entitled 'Evidence and Artifice' (2004), examines the manner in which Smith's work transgresses the boundaries between 'forensics and fantasy'. In her book, Through the Looking Glass (2004), Brenda Schmahmann addresses Smith's Still Life series (figs. 9, 10, 11) in relation to the issue of self-representation, exploring the relationship between the 'self' and the body as 'other'. Lastly, a review by James Sey, which was published in Art/South Africa (2004), considers Smith's work in terms of its aesthetic appeal, which serves as a framing device for the uncomfortable subject matter that informs the bulk of her imagery. My reading of Kathryn Smith's work departs from and expands on the available literature in that it focuses on the manner in which her images comment self-critically on the act of representation. I have chosen to focus on Smith's work in particular, as it uses the mode of the forensic aesthetic to speak of the field of artistic practice - a motif that runs throughout my own body of work as well. Moreover, Smith's work, like my own work, may be said to engage with the forensic aesthetic in a South African context. In Chapter Two, I compare a number of Smith's works to the artworks discussed in Chapter One, and examine the manner in which they speak of the links between art and crime. Chapter Three concentrates on outlining the ways in which my own work reads off the conventions of forensic investigation. In this chapter I discuss the manner in which my work, by way of a forensic approach, draws parallels between the medium of photography and the mechanisms of trauma. I focus on works that have been included in my Master's exhibition, Vigil (2005). The following essay is a study in representations of violence in art. In the course of this essay, I contextualize the forensic aesthetic as a mode of representation, as well as address the manner in which the forensic aesthetic seems to allow for, even facilitate, self-conscious reflection on the practices of representation itself.

Orientador: José Sterza Justo / Banca: José Artur Molina / Banca: Cristina Amélia Luzio. / Banca: Lauro Cesar Ibanhes / Banca: Antônio Carlos Barbosa da Silva / Resumo: O mundo hipercinético da atualidade toca profundamente a subjetividade, fazendo emergir na superfície da conduta formas de ser e agir típicas, resultantes de elaborações cognitivas, emocionais e afetivas, que processam a experiência de tal aceleração da vida e ampliação do espaço. Dentre as subjetivações da velocidade, no mundo contemporâneo, destacamos o tédio como uma das principais, ainda que ele esteja sendo confundido com a depressão, por manter com ela uma sintomatologia semelhante, embora seja bem distinto quanto à sua gênese e dinâmica psicológica. Neste trabalho, além das considerações acerca do tédio, na adolescência, há também reflexões a respeito da noção de trauma. O conceito de trauma, que foi tão útil e iluminador em tempos outros, já não possui o mesmo valor heurístico, porque os processos de subjetivação, na atualidade, não carregam, como outrora, as marcas de embates, contradições, conflitos ou choques brutais. O mundo atual não se funda mais na lógica do conflito e do confronto, como ocorreu com a modernidade do século XVIII até o final do século XX, e, apesar de ser um mundo supermovimentado e acelerado, por isso mesmo, potencialmente capaz de produzir colisões, desenvolve mecanismos de ordenação e controle das mobilidades extremamente sofisticados, evitando "acidentes de trânsito", especialmente no plano do trânsito psicológico (emocional, afetivo, dos vínculos e relacionamentos). O mundo que admitia ou até cultuava o sacrifício e o sofrimento cedeu lugar para um mundo que cultua o prazer, a felicidade e a frivolidade da vida. Há uma tendência ao esmaecimento do trauma, para seu deslocamento como experiência fundante do sujeito e do mundo... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The hyperkinetic world of today deeply touches the subjectivity, bringing out to the surface of the behavior typical forms of acting and being, resulting from cognitive, emotional and affective elaborations, which process the experience of such life and accelerating expansion of the space. Among the subjectivations of speed, in the contemporary world, we point out the boredom as one of the major. Although boredom is being confused with depression, for keeping with it similar symptoms, they are quite different as to their genesis and psychological dynamics. In this work, in addition to considerations about the boredom in adolescence, there are also considerations about the notion of trauma. The concept of trauma, so helpful and enlightening in other times, no longer has the same heuristic value, because the processes of subjectification, at present time, do not carry, as then, marks of struggle, contradictions, conflicts and brutal shock. The world today is no longer on the logic of conflict and confrontation, as it happened with the modernity of the eighteenth century until the late twentieth century. Moreover, despite being a super busy and fast-paced world, therefore, potentially able to produce collisions, develops mechanisms for ordering and control of highly sophisticated mobility, preventing "traffic accidents", especially in terms of psychological traffic (emotional, affective bonds and relationships). The world that worshiped or even admitted sacrifice and suffering has given way to a world that worships... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Orientador: Marcio O. Seligmann-Silva / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T20:48:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernandes_FabricioFlores_D.pdf: 1028248 bytes, checksum: fae3ff88f8caff2425c5fe5a1912bc4a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa tem como objeto de estudo as obras testemunhais de Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes, Retrato calado (1988), e de Flávio Tavares, Memórias do esquecimento (1999), em que os autores narram acontecimentos vividos durante os anos da ditadura militar no Brasil (1964-1985), entre os quais suas passagens por sessões de tortura. Exploram-se, neste trabalho, os motivos por que os relatos apresentam determinadas características estruturais, tais como a cisão do narrador ante a descrição de eventos de extrema violência, a incorporação de um interlocutor a quem o narrador se dirige, a aparente impossibilidade de ordenação cronológica dos fatos e a repetição de termos e construções sintáticas em um mesmo período. A hipótese interpretativa com a qual se trabalha é a de que semelhantes dispositivos, somados à evidência de que longo tempo transcorreu entre a vivência dos fatos e sua narração, indicam que esse narrador hesitante é vítima de experiências traumatizantes. Como forma de validação da hipótese, aborda-se uma série de trabalhos teóricos que versam sobre a relação entre o ato testemunhal e os traumas sofridos. Concomitantemente, no intuito de melhor compreender as condições de surgimento dos relatos, investigam-se textos de perpetradores, cujas visões sobre o período são diametralmente opostas às dos autores estudados aqui. Por fim, analisa-se minuciosamente a estrutura discursiva dos testemunhos de Salinas e Tavares, identificando nos relatos elementos indicativos das dificuldades enfrentadas no ato de escrever a dor / Abstract: The subjects of this research are the testimonial works of Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes, Retrato calado (1988), and Flávio Tavares, Memórias do esquecimento (1999), in which the authors narrate events experienced during the years of the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985), among them the torture suffered. One explores, in this work, the reasons for the accounts present some structural features such as the narrator split before the description of the extreme violence, the simulation of an interlocutor to whom the narrator speaks, the apparent impossibility of setting down the facts on a chronological order, and the repetition of words and syntactic constructs on a same period. The interpretative hypothesis one works with understands that such devices, added to the evidence that long time elapsed between the facts and the narration of them, indicate this hesitant narrator is a victim of traumatizing experiences. As a way of hypothesis validation, one broaches a series of theoretical works on the relation between the testimonial act and the suffered traumas. Furthermore, with the intent to better comprehend the accounts emergence conditions, one investigates perpetrators texts, whose visions on the events are rather opposite to the ones by the authors here studied. Finally, one minutely analyses discursive structures of Salinas¿ and Tavares¿ testimonies, calling attention to the difficulties faced in the act of writing the pain / Doutorado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Doutor em Teoria e História Literária

O presente trabalho se propõe a apresentar uma sistematização teórica de minha experiência clínica enquanto psicanalista, no atendimento com pacientes que, após a remissão de doenças graves tais como diversos tipos de câncer que podem afetar a medula óssea (leucemias e linfomas), apresentavam-se como se ainda estivessem doentes, remetendo-se à doença como se esta fosse um acontecimento atual, identificando-se, em seu discurso, como doentes. Apresentamos dois casos clínicos que estavam com a doença em remissão há mais de dois anos e que foram atendidos em uma instituição hospitalar. O nosso objetivo é possibilitar a compreensão dos processos psíquicos envolvidos nos referidos casos clínicos. Estes atendimentos nortearam a formulação de uma hipótese clinico-teórica. Esta hipótese refere-se à possibilidade de estudar o problema clínico a partir do paradigma conceitual do trauma em Psicanálise, especialmente na acepção desenvolvida por Freud após 1920, com a formulação do segundo dualismo pulsional. Paralelamente, é realizado o percurso teórico que visa discutir a permanência dos pacientes atendidos no lugar de doentes, o que nos conduz à apresentação de um capítulo referente aos paradoxos envolvidos na remissão de uma doença orgânica. A articulação teórico-clínica é baseada em textos de Freud e Ferenczi, além de psicanalistas contemporâneos que têm estes autores como referência. Nesta articulação percorremos os seguintes pontos conceituais: a) a experiência do adoecimento; b) o conceito de trauma e efeito traumático para a Psicanálise; c) as teorias das pulsões; d) o trauma após 1920: as neuroses traumáticas; e) ganho secundário; f) a hipocondria em Freud; g) os paradoxos da cura em Danièle Brun e em Freud; h) sobre o trabalho do luto e da elaboração. A partir da articulação entre a clínica e os conceitos teóricos realizamos a discussão de nossa hipótese clínico-teórica. O percurso teórico-clínico realizado permite verificar que o problema clínico evidenciado pode ser entendido, conforme nossa hipótese clínico-teórica, a partir dos desenvolvimentos de Freud a propósito das neuroses traumáticas, em conjunção com o entendimento de que mesmo algo que era almejado pode não trazer alívio ou realização, mas sofrimento, conforme visto nos paradoxos envolvidos na remissão da doença. O percurso que partiu da clínica nos permite afirmar que o trabalho psicanalítico com pessoas que são acometidas por doenças orgânicas deve contemplar não somente a importância da elaboração psíquica de todo o processo de adoecimento que afeta o corpo, mas também, o que ocorre psiquicamente após a remissão da doença que traz a necessidade de elaboração, pois muitas vezes será no só depois, que estes aspectos poderão ser constatados / The following academic work proposes to present a theoretical systematization of my clinical experience as a psychoanalyst, upon service to patients who, after the remission of severe illnesses such as multiple types of cancer which can affect the bone marrow (leukemia and lymphomas), presented themselves as if they were still sick, referring to the illness as if it was a current event, identifying themselves, within their speeches, as sick people. We present two clinical cases of ones who had had the disease in remission for more than two years and they were cared at a hospital institution. Our goal is to facilitate the comprehension of the psychic processes related in these referred clinical cases. These services have guided the formulation of a clinical-theoretical hypothesis. This hypothesis refers to the possibility of studying the clinical issue from the trauma conceptual paradigm within the Psychoanalysis, especially from the approach developed by Freud after 1920, by formulating the second drives (Trieb) dualism. At the same time, it is done a theoretical trajectory that aims to discuss the attended patients stay at the sick patients place, which conducts us to the presentation of a chapter referring to the paradoxes related to the remission of an organic disease. The theoreticalclinical articulation is based on Freuds and Ferenczis texts, as well as contemporary psychoanalysts who also have these authors as reference. Within this articulation we have scrolled the following conceptual points: a) illness experience; b) the concept of trauma and traumatic effect to Psychoanalysis; c) drivers (Trieb) theories; d) the trauma after 1920: the traumatic neurosis; e) secondary earn; f) hypochondria within Freud; g) the healing paradoxes in Danièle Brun and Freud; h) about the work of grief and the elaboration. From an articulation between the clinic and the theoretical concepts we have discussed our clinicaltheoretical hypothesis. The clinical-theoretical path accomplished allows us to verify that the evident clinical problem can be understood, according to our clinical-theoretical hypothesis, from Freuds developments about traumatic neurosis, in conjunction with the understanding that even something that was desired cannot bring relief or accomplishment, but sorrow, as seen at the paradoxes related on the sickness remission. The path that started with the clinic allows us affirm that the psychoanalytical work towards people that are affected by organic diseases should include not only the importance of the psychic elaboration of the whole illness process that affects the body, but also what occurs mentally after the illness remission that brings the elaboration need, because for several times it will be at deffered action, that these aspects will be able to be determined

This dissertation, which examines the literary representation of childhood trauma, is held together by three threads of inquiry. Firstly, I examine the stylistic devices through which three contemporary African writers – NoViolet Bulawayo, Uwem Akpan, and Mia Couto – engage with the subject of childhood trauma in five of their short stories: “Hitting Budapest”; “My Parents’ Bedroom” and “Fattening for Gabon”; and “The Day Mabata-bata Exploded” and “The Bird-Dreaming Baobab,” respectively. In each of these narratives, the use of ingén(u)s in the form of child narrators and/or focalisers instantiates a degree of structural irony, premised on the cognitive discrepancy between the protagonists’ perceptions and those of the implied reader. This structural irony then serves to underscore the reality that, though in a general sense the precise nature of traumatic experience cannot be directly communicated in language, this is exacerbated in the case of children, because children’s physical and psychological frameworks are underdeveloped. Consequently, children’s exposure to trauma and atrocity results in disruptions of both personal and communal notions of safety and security which are even more severe than those experienced by adults. Secondly, I analyse the political, cultural and economic factors which give rise to the traumatic incidents depicted in the stories, and the child characters’ interpretations and responses to these exigencies. Notions of subjectivity and intersubjectivity, identity and community, victimhood and survival, agency and disempowerment are discussed here in relation to the context of postcolonial Africa and the contemporary realities of chronic poverty, genocide, child-trafficking, the aftermath of civil war, and the legacies of colonialism and racism. Thirdly, this dissertation inspects the areas of congruence and divergence between trauma theory, literary scholarship on trauma narratives, and literary attempts to represent atrocity and trauma despite what is widely held to be the inadequacy of language – and therefore representation – to this task. There are certain differences between the three authors’ depictions of children’s experiences of trauma, despite the fact that the texts all grapple with the aporetic nature of trauma and the paradox of representing the unrepresentable. To this end, they utilise various strategies – temporal disjunctions and fragmentations, silences and lacunae, elements of the fantastical and surreal, magical realism, and instances of abjection and dissociation – to gesture towards the inexpressible, or that which is incommensurable with language. I argue that, ultimately, it is the endings of these stories which suggest the unrepresentable nature of trauma. Traumatic experience poses a challenge to representational conventions and, in its resistance, encourages a realisation that new ways of writing and speaking about trauma in the African continent, particularly with regards to children, are needed.

M.Ed. / The socio-political climate in South-Africa has led to an increase in the number of children experiencing anxiety-related symptoms. Children are observant and notice how their parents react and discuss with other adults the violence and uncontrollable crime rate that exists in our society at present. Society generally views childhood as a naturally happy time, free of responsibilities and worries. But the implication that children are somehow protected from the emotional effects of traumatic events is not true. Children are, in fact, as susceptible to trauma as adults. Many children have experienced incredible trauma first hand and these traumatic events can have a negative effect on the child's self concept and future functioning. Mother problem arising from the insecurity of the socio-political climate is that parents tend to feel that they have to take greater safety precautions, thus children are lacking opportunities for developing independence. Other stress aspects are the changes in family structures. One out of every three children will experience divorce, and will have to cope with the stress of reconstituted families. Not only is there stress involved in the process of divorce, but prior to the divorce conditions within the home are unbearable tense and full of conflict. Children in the South - African townships are often left in the care of extended families due to the fact that their parents may be working far from where they live and go to school. Because of the complexities and breakdown of family life, these children are often forced to get on with their lives and growing up on their own, with no or little family support. It is clear that our children of today often find themselves in positions that they are not developmentally and emotionally equipped to handle, and the instinct of survival is often what they rely on. The South African society consists of a set of complex and often polarised systems, each with its own difficulties. The need for intervention and therapy is great, but the resources are limited. Psychotherapy with a professional play therapist is just not a viable solution for many children. Not only is there a limit to the professional resources available, but a lot of parents see it as a waste of time and the financial cost can be crippling. The situational access is another problem that needs to be addressed. Many children are simply not in a physical position to gain access to therapy. It becomes clear every day that in South Africa, the Western view of individualised and specialised play therapy for children is simply not feasible in many instances. The objective of this research project is to describe the therapeutic process in order to establish certain guidelines regarding therapy with traumatized toddlers. The efficiency of this process will also be discussed. The design of this research project compelled a qualitative research strategy, where the researcher in this study is also the therapist. A participating research process is thus of importance in this project. This research project looks at the process and the implications of short term therapy, especially Narrative Therapy with toddlers between the ages of four to seven years. The project describes the therapy process of co-constructing new and preferred narratives with three clients by challenging dominant discourses of violence, death , loss and trauma. The results of the therapeutic process as well as the shortages and recommendations conconclude this research project.

M.A. (English) / Yann Martel’s Life of Pi takes as its focal point a deeply traumatic event that befalls its main protagonist, Pi Patel. One effect of Pi’s traumatic experience is that it hinders his ability fully to communicate the scope and detail of his suffering. This dissertation seeks to show how, through a deftly woven, framed narrative, the use of the mode of the fantastic and an ambiguous allegory, the novel works creatively to confront the difficulties inherent in the representation of Pi’s trauma. The central tenets of trauma theory offer illuminating perspectives from which to examine the manifestation of trauma in this novel. The framed narrative, when considered within the context of Jacques Derrida’s description of the performance of the frame in The Truth in Painting, is a performance that suggests possibilities for the figurative representation of Pi’s trauma. The framed narrative engenders a profound sense of ambiguity within the text, which is necessary for the fantastic to function. The fantastic, in this novel, resonates with the experience of trauma and displays significant potential in the saying of the unsaid. Ambiguity also permeates the double narrative presented toward the close of the narrative. The double narrative is an allegory, but not a straightforward one and its unorthodox implementation is best understood in the context of the deconstructive possibilities of allegory as delineated by Paul de Man.

This dissertation, which examines the literary representation of childhood trauma, is held together by three threads of inquiry. Firstly, I examine the stylistic devices through which three contemporary African writers – NoViolet Bulawayo, Uwem Akpan, and Mia Couto – engage with the subject of childhood trauma in five of their short stories: “Hitting Budapest”; “My Parents’ Bedroom” and “Fattening for Gabon”; and “The Day Mabata-bata Exploded” and “The Bird-Dreaming Baobab,” respectively. In each of these narratives, the use of ingén(u)s in the form of child narrators and/or focalisers instantiates a degree of structural irony, premised on the cognitive discrepancy between the protagonists’ perceptions and those of the implied reader. This structural irony then serves to underscore the reality that, though in a general sense the precise nature of traumatic experience cannot be directly communicated in language, this is exacerbated in the case of children, because children’s physical and psychological frameworks are underdeveloped. Consequently, children’s exposure to trauma and atrocity results in disruptions of both personal and communal notions of safety and security which are even more severe than those experienced by adults. Secondly, I analyse the political, cultural and economic factors which give rise to the traumatic incidents depicted in the stories, and the child characters’ interpretations and responses to these exigencies. Notions of subjectivity and intersubjectivity, identity and community, victimhood and survival, agency and disempowerment are discussed here in relation to the context of postcolonial Africa and the contemporary realities of chronic poverty, genocide, child-trafficking, the aftermath of civil war, and the legacies of colonialism and racism. Thirdly, this dissertation inspects the areas of congruence and divergence between trauma theory, literary scholarship on trauma narratives, and literary attempts to represent atrocity and trauma despite what is widely held to be the inadequacy of language – and therefore representation – to this task. There are certain differences between the three authors’ depictions of children’s experiences of trauma, despite the fact that the texts all grapple with the aporetic nature of trauma and the paradox of representing the unrepresentable. To this end, they utilise various strategies – temporal disjunctions and fragmentations, silences and lacunae, elements of the fantastical and surreal, magical realism, and instances of abjection and dissociation – to gesture towards the inexpressible, or that which is incommensurable with language. I argue that, ultimately, it is the endings of these stories which suggest the unrepresentable nature of trauma. Traumatic experience poses a challenge to representational conventions and, in its resistance, encourages a realisation that new ways of writing and speaking about trauma in the African continent, particularly with regards to children, are needed. / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in