The Portrayal of Memory, Trauma and Therapy in Post-apartheid South African Plays: a Study of Lara Foot Newton’s Reach! And Craig Higginson’s Dream of the Dog

The Portrayal of Memory, Trauma and Therapy in Post-apartheid South African Plays: a Study of Lara Foot Newton’s Reach! And Craig Higginson’s Dream of the Dog

Abstract of The Portrayal of Memory, Trauma and Therapy in Post-apartheid South African Plays: a Study of Lara Foot Newton’s Reach! And Craig Higginson’s Dream of the Dog

Using Lara Foot Newton’s Reach! and Craig Higginson’s Dream of the Dog, this study explores the manner in which this selected South African playwrights to deploy the themes of memory, trauma and therapy in their works as a means of recounting the horrific experiences of the apartheid regime, and the effects of these experiences on personal, social and political life and relationships in post-apartheid South Africa. Since Literary themes are sometimes burdened with open ended meanings and motifs. They are therefore always open to interpretations guided by concepts and theories of literature. The study proceeds on the assumption that the selected plays like other Postapartheid South African plays embody sensitive issues that relate to memory, trauma and therapy. This is achieved through the use of Freudian psychoanalytic perspective which facilitate an affinity between the influence of memory and trauma on an individual’s social behaviour and literary creativity. It also investigates how interiorities motivate actions in characters in the selected South African postapartheid plays. The study argues that playwrights occupy a central position in not only locating the South African experience within literary discourse but their plays illustrate the therapeutic approach to the study of South African experiences. The study, therefore, finds that psychoanalysis offers a unique perspective to the study of characters in South African plays. It also finds that memory, trauma and therapy influence the inner working of characters in some post-apartheid South African plays. The study thus concludes that psychoanalytic criticism is relevant in delineating how interiorities motivate actions in post-apartheid South African plays.