Broken Strings and Rising Waves: Analyzing Trauma in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Fiction

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to critically examine Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novels through the theoretical lens of trauma studies. First, an overview of Jenkins Reid’s literary practice will be included in the introduction, taking into consideration her achievements and her main works. Subsequently, trauma studies will be presented as a theoretical foundation, explaining the most relevant concepts of this theoretical approach and their pertinence for the purposes of this dissertation. The body of this dissertation will comprise a critical examination of the novel’s traumatized characters and their psychological imbalance present in Reid’s fiction. The causes of her characters’ trauma tend to be family dysfunctional dynamics, abandonment, identity loss, or grief, among others. The aforementioned psychological analysis will be complemented by trauma studies, observing how the characters’ background and traumas determine their fictional personalities and decisions. Furthermore, a section of this essay will analyze how these characters cope with trauma, eventually examining whether complete healing is at all possible in the narratives under examination.