The Gradations of Trauma

This work explores the varying degrees of trauma, and its aftermath, within literature in the British modern period. Utilizing the works of Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence, I argue that the British modernist techniques, unique to that period, mirror the psychological aftermaths of trauma. Despite the inclusion of the aftermaths of trauma within these texts, the authors are ultimately unable to successfully communicate the point of trauma within their works, which indicates an inability to recognize or cope with the trauma itself.