Reading the Gap: Interpreting Non-Representation through Literature

Utilizing terminology introduced by W.R. Bion and Donald Winnicott this capstone develops a new understanding of unrepresented trauma, termed traumatic excess, and offers an analysis of the presence of this phenomenon in literature via three postmodern novels. Traumatic excess originates in traumatic experiences which overwhelm an individual’s ability to imbue experience or stimuli with meaning. This failure results in the localization of the traumatic experience to a dissociated part of the psyche which dominates the traumatized individual’s personality covertly. Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves serves as a case study of traumatic excess which highlights the dissociative struggle often associated with its effect on the individual psyche. Ann Quin’s Passages is similarly examined through the novel’s account of how traumatic excess affects the individual psyche as well as the interpersonal relationship. Finally, Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 is analyzed as an illustration of the prevalence of traumatic excess in individual, relational and societal systems, and, further, the importance of and potential for creating spaces free of these systems which lead to traumatic excess.