Psychic Trauma Research Articles

Postcolonial Trauma in Athol Fugard’s the Train Driver

This paper examines postcolonial trauma in Athol Fugard’s The Train Driver. The study designates the core conceptual nuances of trauma and how it intensified in the course of the play. It draws on Fugard’s utilization of the dramatic incidents and the characters’ dialogues as mere incarnations of post-colonialism in South Africa where psychic trauma maturely develops and reaches its highest point. Hence, the study follows a textual-contextual interpretation of the play’s setting, characters, and dialogues which reflect the true essence of hegemonic post-colonialism in South Africa. These elements with the subject of the study’s methodology which applies a close reading of postcolonial trauma via pursuing a textual analysis of Fugard’s depiction of the South African native who suffered from severe apartheid. On that account, Dominick LaCapra’s concept of trauma will be polarized in the analysis for the sake of delving deep into the lurking impetus of the characters’ psychic trauma affected by social circumferences. Such circumferences will be analyzed as the regional setting in which the postcolonial encounter between the colonized and the colonizers takes place. In the long run, the play’s dialogues will be explored as the authentic exemplification of postcolonial trauma since the characters reveal their psychic trauma by dint of their dialogues.

Psychological Consequences of Experiencing Child Min Girls

Aim: The research aimed to study the psychological consequences of child marriage among girls through a phenomenological approach and semi-structured interviews. Methods: Twenty women from Gilan, Khoozestan, Sistan and Baloochistan, Khorasan and Yazd province who experienced child marriage and their current ages were less than 50 years old were selected through purposive sampling. Interviews and observations were conducted by traveling to each province. Colaizzi method was used in order to analysis data. Results: Results were included of 5 main themes and 15 sub themes in psychological consequences. Main themes are crashed ego, psychic traumas, negative emotions, immaturity and personal maturity. Conclusion: The results showed that negative psychological consequences of child marriage are much more than their positive ones.

“The Horror of It Made Me Mad”: Hysterical Narration in Richard Marsh’s The Beetle (1897)

This article analyzes the hysterical narration styles of two major characters in Richard Marsh’s The Beetle (1897) to reveal the ways late-Victorian discourses attempted (and often failed) to distance particular social anxieties from their modern origins. Attending to previous literary criticism regarding socially Othered groups of this period—racialized foreigners, New Women, and the urban poor—as well as (pseudo)scientific studies from the 1870s–80s, this reading notes the ways that Victorian cultural biases surrounding race, gender, and class could be projected onto Gothicized, Orientalized figures in literary texts. Pairing a postcolonial examination of the novel’s spatial and temporal elements with a psychoanalytic reading of this text, I argue that the slowing pace in Robert Holt’s narrative and the compulsive repetition of Marjorie Lindon’s both reflect the novel’s disruption of space and time and structurally parallel the symptoms of a “hallucinatory hysterical attack,” as conceived by Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud. Together, these hysterical narratives reveal the failure of particular cultural and scientific discourses to completely bury Victorian anxieties about modernity into different, explicitly Othered spaces and times by collapsing both space and time in the narration of psychic trauma.

The exceptional everyday: terror and the weaponisation of daily life

ABSTRACT In a bid to transform social and political circumstances by instilling outsized fear, terrorists orchestrate atrocities that are unsettling, unanticipated and preclude effective countermeasures. Utilising the critical case of explosive devices – the leading method of ’pure’ terrorism – this article analyses an important, yet underexplored, dimension of this process: the weaponisation of the familiar and everyday. By repurposing ubiquitous, banal artefacts to conceal, manufacture or serve as destructive instruments, terrorists nurture vulnerability, inflict psychic trauma and produce conditions of ontological and social entropy where the surrounding environment appears unstable, corrupted and on the brink of rupture. Rather than a subsidiary dimension of asymmetrical conflict, it is argued that these dynamics are central to terrorism’s organising logic. Accentuating them can, therefore, deepen understanding of the phenomenon’s fearsome effectuation and ability to produce extreme discrepancy between risk and response.

Gender without Identity: Ann Pellegrini and Avgi Saketopoulou in Conversation with Jenn Joy

In this conversation with Ann Pellegrini and Avgi Saketopoulou, we discuss their new book Gender without Identity (2023), which focuses on gender as always constructed in relation to social, racial, religious, symbolic and psychic trauma. The conversation expands on their theoretical work in terms of clinical psychoanalytic practice.

Analyze the factors that influence the therapeutic response to psychic trauma

IntroductionPsychic trauma profoundly affects a person’s confidence in himself and others. There is a sudden experience of helplessness, loss of control, fear for one’s own life, and the humiliation of having been violated. The victim may run out of internal and external reference elements.ObjectivesDescribe the factors that influence the development of Post-traumatic stress disorder after experiencing traumatic experiences.MethodsReview in the literature of the different factors that influence the subject’s response to the traumatic experience.Results1)Predisposing and precipitating factors:–characteristics of the traumatic evento: severity of the stressor agent: dose-dependent, Characteristics of the same: sudden, prolonged, repetitive, intentional; decrease the ability to control the situation and develop effective coping strategies; they question basic cognitive schemas; the symbolic meaning of the traumatic evento.–characteristics of the person (predisposing factors of vulnerability): genetic-constitutional vulnerability, adverse experiences in childhood, previous traumatic events: increased vulnerability, personality characteristics, recent stressors or life changes, inadequate support system, use of alcohol, perception locus control more external than internal, pre-existing psychiatric symptoms: neuroticism, anxiety, depression, critical ages of development: time of greatest vulnerability (11-16 years).2)Perpetuating and empowering factors: sharing traumatic events, seeking the logic of the facts, rupture of affective ties.3)Elements of Resistance: tendency to selectively remember the positive elements in autobiographical memory, acceptance of a certain dose of uncertainty in life, perceiving themselves as survivors, perception of the stressful stimulus as less threatening, Less physiological reactivity to stress, use of humor, positive emotions counteracting during the traumatic process.4)Elements of Resilience: ability to extract and assimilate positive elements from negative situations.ConclusionsTrauma threatens 3 basic assumptions of life: the world is good, the world has meaning, the self has value. The knowledge of these mentioned factors allow a better psychotherapeutic approach to Psychic Trauma.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Trauma: open concept.

This paper presents and discusses two sets of theories concerning trauma. The first involves a contemporary social theory of "cultural trauma" and the second refers to psychoanalytic theories on psychic trauma. We argue that these two groups of theories have some relevant elements in common, despite social theorists' critique of psychoanalytic understanding on the matter. In our view, the most important meeting points between these groups of theories concern (a) the possibility to think that trauma is not welded to events but has a formation process, one of attribution of meaning, (b) that this process has a temporality of its own, and (c) that the environment (the objects, actors, and agents that compose it) has a fundamental and determinant role in trauma formation. Further, we suggest that trauma is still an open concept in psychoanalysis.

Children’s psychological resources to cope with psychic trauma

The paper includes a review of the consequences for the child’s personality that follow from a psychic trauma that generates feelings of helplessness and dependence on others. There is a discussion of the psychological resources that the child develops in the process of his or her personality formation, as well as a discussion of the psychological defence mechanisms and coping processes that allow coping with hardships. Relationships with family members, mother, first of all, play a special role in the development of the child’s mental well-being.

Stayin’ alive? Reflections on navigating digital dependency

Digital technologies are pervasive and ensnaring, resulting in widespread dependence of their varying forms and functions. In this commentary we reflect on the effects of our own digital dependencies, noticing how as digital technologies edge toward higher degrees of sentience, we humans are becoming psychically deadened, ever reliant on such technologies to support our fractured selves. Providing three intimate introspective accounts, we foreground emergent themes related to aliveness and addiction, illustrating how social media tendencies are rooted in existential insecurities stemming from psychic difficulties and traumas. We encourage marketing theorists to critically interrogate how digital technologies, and in particular social networking sites, exploit our vulnerabilities to propagate an addictive logic toward aims of capital accumulation.

PERSPECTIVES ON THE SUBJECT MODEL OF MENTAL TRAUMA AND POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

The article presents the perspectives of considering psychological trauma and related disorders, in particular post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), through the concept of subjectness - the subjectness model of psychological trauma. Psychic trauma is defined as an area of the self with a critical devaluation of subjectness. The concepts of subjectness are briefly reviewed, and three main aspects are highlighted: synthesizing, activity, and cognitive. The synthesizing function (aspect) of subjectivity is responsible for the formation of a holistic image of oneself, the world, and relationships - the more holistically an individual perceives the world and oneself, including one's life narrative in the form of a holistic autobiographical time, the higher the level of one's subjectivity. The cognitive function corresponds to the transfer of the sensory level of information to the abstract level and the creation, construction, and restructuring of mental models of the world by setting and solving problems. The synthesizing and cognitive function can be compared to such a concept as mentalization. The activity function corresponds to the individual's sense of himself as a free author of his life and ability to act in sense of a personal form of behavior in which he independently chooses goals and ways of achieving them, and/or an act of moral self-determination in which he asserts himself as a person. The activity function can be compared to such a concept as agency. It is shown that the critical devaluation of the synthesizing function of subjectness can describe the phenomenon of post-traumatic split personality, the devaluation of the activity function of subjectivity – a group of avoidance symptoms in PTSD and post-traumatic negative self-concept, the devaluation of the cognitive function – the inability to integrate the experience of traumatic stress and its existence in a dissociated sensory form. Examples of the author's models of post-traumatic splitting, devaluation of mentalization and formation of a negative self-concept through the formation of a complex of learned helplessness are presented. The concept of subjectness can be convenient for describing mental trauma because, on the one hand, it is holistic and humanistic. On the other hand, it allows working with individual functions of subjectness.

Blank pain and pathological mourning in the analytic situation

ABSTRACT This paper presents an account of the psychoanalytic treatment of pathological mourning in the context of early psychic trauma. I introduce the concept of blank pain, understood as a negative of early trauma, to describe a distinct type of unthinkable anxiety. And I treat pathological mourning as a defence against the unbearable pain of the latter. Clinical observations reveal the extent to which, in a situation where the patient reacts to environmental failure by maintaining a façade (an insincere self), the construction of meaning depends on the use the patient makes of the analytic process and the setting. Considering these observations, I explore the relationship between the structural phenomenon of blank pain and defensive pathological mourning through the therapeutically mutative action of processive interventions and co-enacted scenarios.

Suicide assisté dans le cadre de troubles psychiques : Où va-t-on ?

In recent weeks, many French psychiatrists and psychologists have expressed the concern that assisted suicide and euthanasia may be made available to patients suffering from psychiatric illness or psychopathological disorders. This has resulted in a paradigm shift from “we must do everything to save the patient's life” to “in some cases, we must accompany the patient if he or she chooses to die”. These new provisions which are developing on our borders are part of a broader system concerning the end of life in general where psychiatry and clinical psychology, regardless of their specificities, find themselves on the same level as physical well-being. We review the evolution of ideas concerning suicide as an historical, anthropological, sociological and increasingly media-related fact… at the risk of the spread of suicides. We then clarify the differences between the non-pathological suicidal suffering inherent in human existence, and the suicidal suffering that constitutes a symptom or a pathological process. Between these two extremes that some may regard as self-evident, there are a multitude of complex clinical situations. Let us think of the patient suffering from schizophrenia who, in his hallucinations, hears a voice urging him to die, whereas, a few weeks later, after undergoing appropriate treatment, the hallucinations have subsided. Let us consider the patient presenting with a bipolar disorder who, in a depressive phase, no longer sees any point in living, whereas, a few months later, under treatment or more simply following the spontaneous evolution of his disorder, he is in great shape during a hypomanic phase. But there are also those who suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorders that are resistant to treatment, which leads to chronicity with a high rate of suicide (not associated with any “medical aid in dying”). We describe the phenomenon of suicidal ideation and behavior as a continuum at risk of breaking down, and we then consider the example of people with post-traumatic disorders. While psychic trauma results from a confrontation with death, rather than subsequently distancing oneself from it, the psychically impaired subject will often remain monopolized, overwhelmed by this repetition of death, sometimes to the point of wanting to become one with it through suicidal behavior by acting out a final flashback. We must therefore ensure that “medical assistance in dying” does not become an extension of the symptom, a symptom reiterated by society. Lastly, we address the form that a medico-psychological expertise commission might take in the context of a request for “medical assistance in dying” by proposing a list of questions put to the expert.

Study of the epidemiologic characteristics of childhood vitiligo in Egyptian children

Background Vitiligo during childhood is common. Pediatric vitiligo has a profound effect on the quality of life of both children and their parents. Aims and objectives To investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of vitiligo among Egyptian children. Patients and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted and included children of both sexes from birth to less than 18 years of age. The study included schools and maternity and childhood care centers in Sohag Governorate, Upper Egypt, during the period from March 2019 to February 2020. Complete demographic and clinical information of children with vitiligo were recorded. Dermatological examination of patients with vitiligo was done. Vitiligo area and severity index of patients was calculated. Results Of 2594 screened children, 18 (0.7%) had vitiligo. The median age of children with vitiligo was 12 (2–17) years. The age interval from 13 to less than 18 years accounted for 44.4% of vitiligo cases. Females cases of vitiligo were more prevalent (61.1%). Overall, 72.2% of patients with vitiligo were resident of rural areas. Of the 18 cases with childhood vitiligo, 83.3% of cases had a history of consanguineous marriage and 66.5% had vitiligo vulgaris. A proportion of cases related the exacerbation of the disease to exposure to psychological stress. Conclusions Childhood vitiligo was detected in 0.7% of pediatric population in Upper Egypt. The majority of cases with childhood vitiligo had a history a consanguineous marriage between the parents. Psychic trauma was identified as a potential exacerbating factor of childhood vitiligo.

Psychic trauma and a special plot of short stories as a result of the incompatibility of personality and culture

The article discusses the features of the love-passionate plot in the stories of Ivan Bunin. The question is raised why Bunin, describing the strange or immoral acts of the heroes, does not condemn them, and in general draws a bright, sometimes sad atmosphere. Analysis of L. S. Vygotsky’s short story “Easy Breathing” by Bunin allows us to express an idea about a certain strategy for building Bunin’s works. Based on this consideration, the methods by which Bunin achieves the effect of perception of the characters he needs are analyzed. There are three such techniques: the convergence of the actions and behavior of the characters with the life and breath of nature, the depiction of the life of the characters from the point of view that Bunin needs, and the endowment of the characters with personality traits that exclude ethical characteristics and problems. The scientific explanation of Bunin's artistic constructions is based on the analysis of mental trauma (caused by the departure of the first wife and the horrors of the revolution), artistic understanding of the events that interest the writer, and the peculiarities of the conceptualization of these events. In addition, it is proposed to take into account that Bunin began and became famous as a poet, and as a poet he composed his prose partly according to the laws of versification.

“Relational homeˮ as a strategy for an intersubjective psychoanalytic approach to working with the consequences of psychic trauma

This article attempts to theoretically analyse the concept of “relational homeˮ, introduced by Robert D. Stolorow. The clinical and theoretical contexts of the formation of this concept, due to the original theory of mental trauma, formulated within the framework of intersubjective psychoanalysis, are studied. Based on this study, an analysis of this concept was made. In the course of this study, the content of this concept was revealed. A phenomenological analysis of various types of mental trauma was carried out, in relation to which Robert D. Stolorow proposes to apply this strategy. And also a comparison was made between two different situations: using the considered strategy in relation to a person experiencing a painful affect, as well as in relation to a person who has experienced a mental trauma. It has been pointed out that this difference reveals two different types of emotional shelter, one of which takes place in human relationships in everyday life, and the second, mainly refers to the situation of psychological counseling. The article also proposed an interpretation of these varieties of psychoanalytic strategies in terms of intersubjective field theory, designed to emphasise the importance of this distinction.

Combat stress research prospects in Russian academic publications analyzed using to VOSviewer software (2005–2021)

Relevance. Last decades have seen an increase in local wars and armed conflicts, that more often than not are associated with manifestations of combat stress and other types of stress-associated psychic disorders in the military and civilians. Prompt prevention of acute (short-term) events of combat psychic trauma (combat stress) can be associated with subsequent adaptive stress response and general increase physical adaptability to extreme pathogenic impacts (including combat-specific factors); in absent, such events transform into chronic (persistent) conditions within clinically defined stress-associated psychic disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) in the long-term and comorbid psychosomatic pathology.The objective is to use VOSviewer software to study research prospects in publications by Russian investigators on combat stress (2005–2021).Methods. The search engine yielded 894 references to publications on combat stress issues, indexed with the Russian Science Citation Index from 2005 through 2021. Publications on the special military operation in Ukraine were not considered. In terms of content, the papers were aligned with rubrics of the classifier. Investigators who had published the largest number of articles underwent scientometric assessment. VOSviewer software was used to identify the largest scientific clusters and networks. The paper reports median values, the upper and lower quartiles (Me [q25; q75]) of mean annual number of published papers.Results and discussion. Annually, fifty-seven 57 [44; 64] papers on combat stress published in Russia were indexed. The distribution by research field included general combat stress problems issues – 7 %, biological aspects – 11.1 %, medical aspects – 23 %, social and psychological aspects – 58.9 %. Content structure dynamics revealed an upward trend in the number of papers devoted to general, biological, social and psychological problems, with a decrease in the number of papers on medical issues. With 9 repetitive key words or 4 repetitive authors, VOSviewer software identified 5 clusters of papers and 11 academic co-authorships. Cluster 1 included a set of papers on combat stress disorder with Total Link Strength of 40.1 %, cluster 2 – social and psychological problems of combat stress (22.2 %), cluster 3rd – psychosomatic disorders in combat veterans (13.1 %), cluster 4 – human behavior in extreme environments (12.4 %), cluster 5 – stress manifestations in civilians during combat operations (12.2 %).Conclusion. The conducted research demonstrates a focus shift of content in Russian academic publications on combat stress from medical issues to social and psychological repercussions, as well as increased number of papers on the diagnostics of human behavior amid vital stress conditions, development of stress-related mental resistance, psychoprophylaxis, psychological correction and psychotherapy of stress and post-stress disorders. An academic e-library provides researchers with for excellent information resources and tools, with about 80% of papers on combat stress available in full version free of charge.

Clitoral Therapy Device for Alleviating Sexual Dysfunction After Female Genital Mutilation: Randomized Controlled Trial

Female genital mutilation is considered a crime but is still practiced today in Africa and the Middle East, despite all the laws that make this procedure illegal due to the long-term physical and psychological harm it causes to women. Millions of girls and women living today have undergone genital mutilation, which involves removing the external female genitalia either partially or totally, based on the belief that it restricts feminine sexuality, thereby "saving" a girl for marriage. For girls and women, the surgery offers no health advantages. Girls' right to control critical decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health is violated because genital mutilation is frequently done against their will and frequently without their consent, leading to lifelong psychic trauma in addition to sexual dysfunction and lack of satisfaction due to distortion of the genitalia that threatens marital stability. To determine the effect of a clitoral therapy device on improving sexual domains in women suffering from sexual dysfunction after female genital mutilation. This study examined 80 married women aged from 20 to 45 years who were referred from the gynecology outpatient clinic of the Faculty of Medicine, Suez University, for sexual dysfunction resulting from female genital mutilation. The women were divided into 2 equal groups: the study group received a clitoral therapy device and traditional psychosexual education and were closely followed for 3 months, while the control group received only traditional psychosexual education for 3 months. The Arabic version of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire was used to assess sexual outcomes pre- and posttreatment in the 2 groups. Our findings revealed a significant increase in the 6 domains of the FSFI pretreatment in both groups compared to posttreatment (P>.001), except the orgasm domain in the control group, which showed only a nonsignificant increase (P=.16). Clitoral therapy devices may be an effective, safe, noninvasive rehabilitation method for sexual dysfunction following female genital mutilation. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05039775; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05039775.

Moving through places: Trauma and dislocation in Elizabeth Bowen's The House in Paris

AbstractIn The House in Paris, Elizabeth Bowen presents the traumatic spatial experience of dislocation and homelessness of a number of characters centered around an upper‐middle‐class woman, Karen Michaelis, who defies the spatial confinement imposed by the dominant ideology regarding women in the interwar period, but ultimately becomes traumatized due to her failed quest for a place of identity, of belonging. The existing scholarship on The House in Paris tends to read the motifs of trauma and place separately. Those critics exploring place mainly concentrate on the Parisian house and tend to regard it as a symbol of the past and entrapment (Kershner, 1986, 407; Lytovka, 2016, 40), while those studying trauma mainly center on the psychological aspects of trauma, investigating either the structure and effects of psychic trauma or the effects of trauma on the narration of the novel (Bennett & Royle, 1995, 43; Gildersleeve, 2014, 50). This essay argues that a fuller understanding of Bowen's writing of women's trauma in the interwar period in The House in Paris must examine how their trauma is related to spatial experience. Linking the temporal experience of trauma—especially forgetting and repetition—with the spatial experience of Karen and the characters around her unfolds the historical and social contexts behind trauma, that is, it is impossible for women to rebel against the national ideology of womanhood embodied by her family home and to find a place of dwelling. For Bowen the voyage of the subjectivity of women in the interwar period merely renders her protagonists traumatized rather than enabling them to find an attachment to place. So detrimental is the effect that it is impossible for them to “work through” their trauma.

The Presence of Absence: The House in Palestinian Exilic Writing

This article explores representations of the home in Mahmoud Darwish's poem "The House as Casualty" and Hala Alyan's 2017 novel Salt Houses. The article builds on the psychoanalytic discourse of home in literary analysis but focuses on the materiality of the house to consider the role of the house in broader struggles of national identity and claims to place. In the case of exilic Palestinian representations of displacement, scholars' reliance on models that focus only on the psychological ramifications of unhoming and/or limit the material world to a metaphor for a person's inner world may diminish the role the built environment plays in politics surrounding Palestine. My approach privileges the role the house plays in retaining memory and cultural practices that constitute the fabric of the nation. Darwish's and Alyan's texts necessarily engage with the deterritorialized nature of Palestinian identity and the psychic trauma of displacement but also fight against erasure by utilizing the materiality of the pre-al-Nakba house as the manifestation of displacement and its memory as a claim to place.

South Africa’s National Arts Festival (review)

Reviewed by: South Africa’s National Arts Festival Bryan W. Schmidt SOUTH AFRICA’S NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL. Various venues, Makhanda, South Africa. June 23–July 3, 2022. South Africa’s National Arts Festival (NAF) built its reputation on being a platform for vital social critique, a major draw for the Eastern Cape economy, and also a kuierfees—a social festival with an immersive, artsy atmosphere. After being forced to move online for two straight years, the 2022 live festival was held in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) to rousing critical accolade—but with markedly lower attendance than pre-COVID times. Art of all disciplines was still on offer in the many venues scattered around Rhodes University, the 1820 Settlers National Monument, and the central business district, but there was a palpable decline in the bustling street life that animated years past. High Street and Church Square usually brim with pop-up marketplaces, buskers, street musicians, parades, and local children performing as mimes. This year, the few street performers present seemed confined to the NAF’s curated marketplace, the Village Green, and most of the informal vendors who make a living by following the crowds left town after just a few days. The successful pivot to digital over the last two years has given the NAF nimbleness to cope with changing times (and some virtual programming remained available in 2022), but rebuilding the live event’s vibe remains a considerable challenge. Continued caution around COVID was partially to blame for the turnout, but other factors like rapid inflation, gas price hikes, nationwide power outages, and competition from other regional arts festivals likely discouraged many from investing in the trip to Makhanda. But the NAF’s curated program still featured top-caliber work with stellar production values, and the fringe maintained a particularly robust showing from student groups and emerging professionals in the Eastern Cape, the Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal. For a festival that has made significant efforts in recent years to shed its image as an event held for a wealthy artistic establishment that skews disproportionally white, it was encouraging to see that enthusiasm for performing on a national stage continued to have a pull for Black African artists, especially those from rural areas. Click for larger view View full resolution Andrew Buckland, Tshiamo Moretlwe, Siyamthanda Sinani, Mongi Mtombeni, Roshina Ratnam, Beviol Swartz (l-r) in Hamlet. Photo: Alan Eason. Thando Doni, this year’s winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Drama, made the bold choice to stage his sponsored production Ngqawuse (The Death of a Nation) almost entirely in isiXhosa. Although this is the dominant language in Makhanda (and many fringe shows were also staged in artists’ vernaculars), the little English provided was somewhat uncommon for a featured work in the curated program. The language choice made a powerful claim within the space of Rhodes University, reinforcing the play’s pointed investigation of knowledge and epistemology as durable vectors of British domination. In recalling one of the Eastern Cape’s most tragic encounters with colonial power, Ngqawuse contended that contemporary social struggles in South Africa must be located within its history. It discusses events from 1856–1857, when Xhosa communities responded desperately to British violence by slaughtering their own cattle in fulfillment of a [End Page 81] millenarian prophecy, leading to mass starvation, and hastening their subjugation. Over 150 years later, Doni showed how the psychic wounds stemming from these events continue to haunt contemporary social life. Like in Zakes Mda’s novel The Heart of Redness, which also examined the cattle killings, Doni created a porous relationship between the past and present. He juxtaposed to the 19th century history of the prophet-ess Ngqawuse (Chuma Sopotela) a contemporary love story between a young man and woman that unfolded from youthful exuberance to tragic ruin. The minimal set featured a dusty, leaf-strewn floor evocative of the Eastern Cape landscape, where both stories could unfold simultaneously through crafty visual composition. Crucially, Doni’s staging self-consciously avoided leading the audience to place blame on Ngqawuse for the slaughter she urged, nor on Xhosa people still grappling with psychic trauma and generational destitution stemming thereof. Doni rendered both...