Spirals: Spacing, Trauma, Becoming, and Autoimmunity with Caruth, Derrida, Freud, Itō, and Miyazaki.
Degree
Master of Arts
Program
Theory and Criticism
Supervisor
Boulter, Jonathan S.
Abstract
This thesis studies trauma through the works of Japanese popular culture to propose a spiral model for the form of trauma. I analyse trauma as it is re-presented in the Dark Souls I, III, and Junji Itō’s Uzumaki. Applying contemporary trauma theorists such as Catherine Malabou and Cathy Caruth alongside Gaston Bachelard and Jacques Derrida, I seek here to present a becoming-space of time and becoming-time of space as a new way of approaching trauma. This phrase is briefly mentioned in Derrida’s Rogues and has been reworked here to describe trauma as it behaves in space and time—or, rather, a mixture of the two. I then apply the Derridean notions of spacing and autoimmunity to illustrate a non-linear model of time and trauma, which allows for a discussion of the methods by which we (re)orient ourselves when we have been affected by a traumatic event or image.
Recommended Citation
Song, Elizabeth, "Spirals: Spacing, Trauma, Becoming, and Autoimmunity with Caruth, Derrida, Freud, Itō, and Miyazaki." (2019). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 6028.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6028
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