Abstract
This paper studies Jane Smiley's book A Thousand Acres (1991) as a case study of how feminists interpret trauma and create alternative narratives to Shakespeare's play, King Lear (1606). Using both psychological and sociological concepts, based on the theories of trauma developed by Cathy Caruth (1996), Judith Herman (1997), Shoshana Felman (2007), Dori Laub (2008) & Dominick LaCapra (2009), along with ecological concepts of feminism developed by Vandana Shiva (1991), Carolyn Merchant (1980), Val Plumwood (1994), Greta Gaard (2002) & Ariel Salleh (2000), this research paper presents an in-depth examination of Jane Smiley’s book A Thousand Acres, demonstrating how she has constructed a trauma narrative that combines the concepts of trauma with an ecological perspective and has allowed her to build a trauma narrative structure based upon her experience as a woman experiencing various forms of gender based oppression. From the perspective of trauma, A Thousand Acres is a representation of how women are subjected to gender-based violence, through their lack of autonomy and agency in a patriarchal structure, the systemic control of women's bodies, and their inability to create a coherent narrative of their experience. Ginny Cook Smith, the main narrator of A Thousand Acres, narrates a fragmented and chaotic account of her abusive upbringing, showing the impact that trauma and repression can have on the construction of narrative and on the experience of narrative closure. In addition, A Thousand Acres also demonstrates how the production of food and land use through industrial agriculture and ecological degradation connects directly to the exploitation of women's bodies. The author uses the concept of catharsis to illustrate her belief that there is no way to achieve justice through healthy, supportive relationships. In A Thousand Acres, the only possible response to long-standing trauma is through endurance, dislocation, and survival. A Thousand Acres also exposes the interconnectedness of gender-based oppression and ecological exploitation, demonstrating that trauma is a systemic process rather than an individual pathology.
Keywords: Trauma theory; ecofeminism; feminist literary criticism; gendered violence; silence and memory; postmodern narrative; patriarchal power
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