Research article | Open Access
International Journal of Language and Education Research 2025, Vol. 7(1) 46-74
Healing Beyond Trauma: The Fractured Reality of Recovery in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina
pp. 46 - 74
Publish Date: April 30, 2025 | Single/Total View: 0/0 | Single/Total Download: 0/0
Abstract
This article explores the complexities of trauma recovery in Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina by applying a critical, intersectional lens grounded in contemporary trauma theory. While Judith Herman’s triphasic model of recovery serves as a foundational framework, the analysis also engages with theorists such as Cathy Caruth, Stef Craps, and Bessel van der Kolk to account for the fragmented, recursive, and socially embedded nature of healing. The study examines how Allison’s narrative portrays recovery not as a linear or universally applicable process, but as a politically charged, context-dependent struggle shaped by poverty, familial betrayal, and institutional neglect.Through a structured thematic analysis grounded in Braun and Clarke’s framework, and informed by interdisciplinary trauma theory,the article demonstrates how the novel destabilizes conventional paradigms of recovery and reconfigures survival as a form of resistance. This study contributes to trauma and literary studies by foregrounding the limitations of universal recovery models and highlighting the role of literature in articulating the lived complexities of post-traumatic experience
Keywords: Bastard out of Carolina, familial betrayal, Judith Herman, recovery, trauma theory
APA 7th edition
kaleh, S.E. (2025). Healing Beyond Trauma: The Fractured Reality of Recovery in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina. International Journal of Language and Education Research, 7(1), 46-74.
Harvard
kaleh, S. (2025). Healing Beyond Trauma: The Fractured Reality of Recovery in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina. International Journal of Language and Education Research, 7(1), pp. 46-74.
Chicago 16th edition
kaleh, Safaa El (2025). "Healing Beyond Trauma: The Fractured Reality of Recovery in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina". International Journal of Language and Education Research 7 (1):46-74.
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