Lynching and its Representation in African American Drama: Traumatic Memory in Sleep Deprivation Chamber and Rachel

Abstract

The harrowing memories of lynching as a method of historical implementation of terror and violence imposed on generations of Afro-Americans have been portrayed in numerous dramatic works. Lynching is generally referred to as a quasi-ritual and extra-legal act of punishment and retribution, which has been exercised throughout history as a method of intimidation. What should be accentuated is the far-reaching impact of such an atrocity on its victim's mentality and identity. Collective trauma and agonizingly invisible memories of humiliation, exploitation, racial discrimination, physical assault and sexual abuse experienced by black people resonate in dramatic renderings of many black playwrights. This article investigates the long-term impact of lynching and racial atrocities on the black collective psyche and the mechanisms through which one can articulate traumatized memories and experiences. By examining black people's traumatic encounter with savagery and coercion, this research explores its ensuing psychic impact on the black community. For this purpose, Angelina Weld Grimke's Rachel (written in 1916 and published in 1920) and Adam and Adrienne Kennedy's Sleep Deprivation Chamber (1996) are analysed in order to trace the footprints of ubiquitous racism and its jarringly traumatic impact on the black psyche. The horrendous account of police atrocity, the 'modern day lynching', against Teddy Alexander, a black youngster, and its subsequent repercussions in the private and public lives of his black family finds its way in the fragmented pieces of memory and repetitious moments of nightmare. Psychological and emotional effects of lynching resembling permanent burns inscribed both on black bodies and black minds are reflected in Rachel's traumatized mind colliding with many rising conflicts in a white supremacist society that eventually leads to her total abandonment of sexual life and motherhood. Theories of Christina Wald, which rely heavily on the psychological and psychoanalytical aspects of dramatic works, will be employed. By explaining and defining "Trauma Drama", Wald has striven to discover and analyse the hidden traces of racial violence on the soul and psyche of the victim's personality and its conspicuous impact on the quality of life and decision making in the real world. This study also explicates the psychological effects of racially motivated hatred and hostility toward black people and illustrates how the characters of the aforementioned plays face racist assault and agonizingly atrocious behaviour from the white supremacist society through expressing their lived experiences derived from trauma and post-traumatic aftermath of the racist incident in the form of linguistic mechanisms. What the authors of this article, by providing concrete examples, is to depict how the characters of the aforementioned selected plays attempt to assert their traumatized personality through remembering first-hand accounts of racially motivated attacks and strive to elicit empathy and understanding from both people surrounding them and the audience.

Keywords

• trauma and theatre
• christina wald
• african american literature
• lynching
• collective trauma