“Unspeakable Suffering”: Women’s Experience of Trauma in Lynn Nottage’s Ruined

Abstract

Lynn Nottage's Ruined, a Pulitzer Prize play, tackles the plight of women’s survival during the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The play is a loud scream for the whole world to view the physical violence of women and hear their traumatic memories, hoping that this attempt might save them from their disastrous lives resulting from the brutalities of civil war. In this play, women are portrayed beyond victims of the political and armed conflicts as they serve as a reflection of a serious issue that threatens the human race in general: the continuing dehumanization whereby women are considered minorities and the “others,” even within their own society. By applying a critical analysis technique, the current paper aims to shed light on women's experience of their violated bodies and their unspeakable suffering in the context of their trauma.