Volume 7, Number 1/2

Bearing Witness to Bushfires: Trauma, Memory and Recovery in Eliza Henry Jones’ Ache

  Authors

Muhsina N, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

  Abstract

Bushfires are recurring phenomena that have been a part of Australian sociocultural life. Avid Australian writer Eliza Henry-Jones’ second novel Ache (2017) is an itinerary of the devastatingly traumatic life journey of the protagonist Annie who is constantly haunted by the nightmarish memories of bushfire prone past. Her life has changed drastically after a bushfire ravages Annie’s mountain community, traumatized her daughter Pip, killing her grandmother, and leaving her home in wreck-havoc. Annie’s responses to trauma require scrutiny of her psychological functioning within the social or cultural environment that may suppress acknowledgement of trauma. The novel depicts traumatic and fragmented memories that incorporate varied survival behaviours within the characterization of survivors through Annie, her family and acquaintances. This proposed paper will analyse the impact of bushfire on Indigenous population with reference to the life of Annie and the events that are taken from the novel Ache by Eliza Henry Jones by using literary trauma theory.

  Keywords

Trauma, isolation, trans-generational trauma, memory, women, healing, PTSD.