Research Article

Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House

Number: 34 June 29, 2022
TR EN

Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House

Abstract

This article aims to argue that Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House, which is a rewriting of Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, is an attempt to give voice to Clytemnestra’s and Electra’s disregarded wounds, claiming that overlooked and/or suppressed traumas demand to be communicated on stage, seeking justice and solace. The act of rewriting by women is also interpreted as an act of reckoning for the trauma of the negation/misrepresentation of the female voice in the canon. Thus, rewriting a classical play functions on two levels, it helps moving female characters and their traumas centre stage, and with the attendance of the live audience the play experiments with the experience of bearing witness to and transmission of women’s traumatic stories. In the light of trauma theory, acting-out & working-through, hauntology, bearing witness and testimony, this article explores staging uncommunicable traumas and the transmission of traumatic experience through retelling and re-enacting.

Keywords

References

  1. Aeschylus. The Oresteian Trilogy. Translated by Philip Vellacott. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1974. google scholar
  2. Aston, Elaine. “Moving Women Centre Stage: Structures of Feminist-Tragic Feeling.” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, 5(2), (2017): 292-310. https://doi.org/10.1515/jcde-2017-0027 google scholar
  3. Aydoğmuş, Azime. “Clytemnestra as a Nightmare to Patriarchy in Aeschylus Tragedy, the Oresteian Trilogy.” Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi, 27 (2), (2015): 25-38. google scholar
  4. Caruth, Cathy. “Trauma and Experience: Introduction.” In Trauma: Explorations in Memory, edited by Cathy Caruth, 3-12. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. google scholar
  5. Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. google scholar
  6. Chevalier, Jean, and Alain Gheerbrant. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. Translated by John Buchanan-Brown. London: Penguin Books, 1996. google scholar
  7. Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International. Translated by Peggy Kamuf. New York: Routledge, 1994. google scholar
  8. Duggan, Patrick, and Mick Wallis. “Trauma and Performance.” Performance Research, 16 (1), (2011): 4-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2011.562674 google scholar

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Literary Studies, Literary Theory, Applied Theatre

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

June 29, 2022

Submission Date

April 2, 2022

Acceptance Date

June 1, 2022

Published in Issue

Year 2022 Number: 34

APA
Karadağ, Ö. (2022). Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House. Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği Ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi, 34, 19-37. https://doi.org/10.26650/jtcd.2022.1097604
AMA
1.Karadağ Ö. Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House. JTCD. 2022;(34):19-37. doi:10.26650/jtcd.2022.1097604
Chicago
Karadağ, Özlem. 2022. “Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House”. Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği Ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi, nos. 34: 19-37. https://doi.org/10.26650/jtcd.2022.1097604.
EndNote
Karadağ Ö (June 1, 2022) Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House. Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi 34 19–37.
IEEE
[1]Ö. Karadağ, “Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House”, JTCD, no. 34, pp. 19–37, June 2022, doi: 10.26650/jtcd.2022.1097604.
ISNAD
Karadağ, Özlem. “Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House”. Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi. 34 (June 1, 2022): 19-37. https://doi.org/10.26650/jtcd.2022.1097604.
JAMA
1.Karadağ Ö. Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House. JTCD. 2022;:19–37.
MLA
Karadağ, Özlem. “Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House”. Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği Ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi, no. 34, June 2022, pp. 19-37, doi:10.26650/jtcd.2022.1097604.
Vancouver
1.Özlem Karadağ. Rewriting Women and Trauma: Zinnie Harris’s This Restless House. JTCD. 2022 Jun. 1;(34):19-37. doi:10.26650/jtcd.2022.1097604