earticle

영어

This study examines war trauma and the process of its recovery in Chang-rae Lee’s The Surrendered. The protagonists, June, Hector and Sylvie have traumatic memories from war. Their daily life is no better than those of the dead because of cruel memories, which result in their ‘psychic numbing’. Traumatic experience produces a indelible effect on the human psyche that can change the individual’s memory, self-recognition, and relational life. The protagonists strive to end the eternal cycles of trauma by working through what they had experienced. This recovery can be only possible when they confront their painful past and transform it to consistent narratives. A pilgrimage to Solferino is the core essence of working through their trauma. June and Hector have a new understanding of trauma through fragmented memory, where the symbolic figure Sylvie is restored to a narrative wholeness. Chang-rae Lee proposes in The Surrendered that trauma can be appropriated as an active and creative way through the narrative of memory.