E-Thesis 179 views
The Wake / ALISON MORRISON
Swansea University Author: ALISON MORRISON
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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.64083
Abstract
The Wake combines a contemporary narrative about the death of a local fisherman in an unnamed Northern town, with nineteenth-century accounts of working-class life based on the real and tragic trade in young sea fishing apprentices that took place in the 1880s. The wake, attended by the dead man him...
| Published: |
Swansea, Wales, UK
2023
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| Institution: | Swansea University |
| Degree level: | Doctoral |
| Degree name: | Ph.D |
| Supervisor: | Bilton, Alan. |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64083 |
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| Abstract: |
The Wake combines a contemporary narrative about the death of a local fisherman in an unnamed Northern town, with nineteenth-century accounts of working-class life based on the real and tragic trade in young sea fishing apprentices that took place in the 1880s. The wake, attended by the dead man himself, develops into a chaotic pub-to-pub pursuit to find a character called The Old Man, while the apprentices' experiences are told via a series of personal letters, official historical interviews, reports and inquiries, illustrating the dangers experienced aboard ship, shipwreck, imprisonment in gaol and the political and humanitarian concerns over the sea apprentice system. The essay examines the background and influences of the novel, exploring the origins and development of the trade in sea fishing apprentices, along with its recruitment practices, dangers, resistance behaviours, inquiries and institutional abuse. The essay also examines how the text attempts to articulate the challenges of trauma, its definition and the physical and emotional symptoms and behaviours of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It explores the return of memories out of time using theoretical writings on trauma by Freud, Caruth, Felman and Van der Kolk, and the influence of the excluded or missing ancestor upon transgenerational trauma using Hellinger’s Family Constellation theory. The essay considers the literary context and influence of other texts, exploring its use of voice, and how the how the novel uses experimental aspects of Magic Realism to represent the fractured and episodic reality of trauma survivors, blurring boundaries between the real and fantastic, past and present, distorting time by destabilizing the contemporary narrative with nineteenth century ghosts and unreliable narrators. Finally, it considers the significance of writing and being written, the impact of social class and the importance of inclusion of multiple missing and marginalised working-class perspectives. |
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| Item Description: |
Due to Embargo and/or Third Party Copyright restrictions, this thesis is not available via this service. |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |