Images of the Wounded Mouth: Dissonant Approaches to Trauma in Literary, Visual and Performance Cultures

Images of 'wounded mouths' occur frequently in literary and visual artworks artefacts from both the Global South and the Global North and often imply some form of language loss in relation to trauma. There is, however, a decisive difference between language loss as a symptomatic reaction towards a single traumatic event as explained by Western trauma theorists, and language loss as part of an insidious trauma, caused and perpetuated by continuing forms of structural discrimination. This study contrasts literary and visual images from the Global South to the Global North so as to understand strategies of trauma confrontation within the ambit of what it terms Global South trauma theory.

Tatjana Pavlov-West ist Research Associate der Universität von Pretoria in Südafrika, Dozentin für englischsprachige Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften, Visual Cultural Studies sowie Lehrkraft für Englisch und Französisch an einer Waldorfschule.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION: Images of the Wounded Mouth Concept and Purpose The Loss of Language and the Absence of Speech Outline of Chapters PART I: TONGUE-TIED TONGUE-TIED: INTRODUCTION Methodology Structure CHAPTER ONE: Vitiated Voices in Jones's Sorry Western Trauma Insidious Trauma Affective Ties CHAPTER TWO: Audible Crying in Miller's REwind Western Trauma Theory Insidious Trauma Affective Ties/Cries CHAPTER THREE: Silent Weeping in Searle's Mute Western Trauma Insidious Trauma Affective Ties TONGUE-TIED: CONCLUSION - De Kok's A Room Full of Questions PART II: MUTED MOUTHS MUTED MOUTHS: INTRODUCTION Methodology Structure CHAPTER FOUR: Muzzled Mouths Bailey's "Still-life with Negro" Aestheticized Horror The Returned Gaze Framing the Victim Lôbo's Iron Mask, White Torture Anastácia's Gaze Taking off the Muzzle The Female Black Panther Speech as Resistance Conclusion: An Entangled History of Black Female Empowerment CHAPTER FIVE: Sealed Lips Bailey's "Survival of the Fittest" Ethnography Social Darwinism Contemporary Migration Policies Al Assad's "Asylum" in Dialogue with Parr's Close the Concentration Camps The Refugee Camp as a Zone of Indistinction Homo Sacer as a Threat Denial of a Shared Humanity CHAPTER SIX: Suffocating Silence Waterboarding and the Perpetuation of Victimization The South African TRC and the Jeffrey Benzien Amnesty Hearing The Ticking Bomb Threat and the Global War on Terror The Loss of Humanity An Exception to the Exception - Empowering Protest Questioning the State of Exception: Yazir Henry World Can't Wait: Turning the Threat Inside Out De Kok's "What kind of man?" and the Loss of Humanity MUTED MOUTHS: CONCLUSION CONCLUSION: The Cut-Off Tongue APPENDIX "Tongue-Tied" by Ingrid de Kok from Terrestial Things (2002) "The Archbishop chairs the first session" by Ingrid de Kok from Terrestial Things (2002) "The transcriber speaks" by Ingrid de Kok from Terrestial Things (2002) "Sorry Song" (1998; 2007) by Kerry Fletcher South Africa's national anthem "Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika" (1997) "Beasts of No Nation" (1989) by Fela Kuti "On My Way Out I Passed Over You and the Verrazano Bridge" (1986) by Audre Lorde BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY SOURCES Literary texts Artworks Music Films / TV series SECONDARY SOURCES