Filtering by
- Creators: Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics
- Creators: Allen, Kelly Anne
- Creators: Ball, Sally
While the poems illustrate the complexity of one’s experience with both PTSD and its stages of recovery (e.g., emergency, numbness, intrusive/repetitive, integration), they are anchored in the sensory, the concrete. Amidst the terror of the symptoms at the most basic, raw level, she attempts to reclaim selfhood, which involves wrestling with philosophical suicide, reconciling realities, numbness and the widening of a barrier, stunning intimacies, the craving to feel, and both the desire and the need to connect authentically without being able to satiate such inclinations.
Influenced by the works of Frank Bidart, Claudia Rankine, James Longenbach, and Carolyn Forché, the pieces rely heavily upon rhythm and spacing, imagery, and associative linkages throughout the work to craft a sense of physical, intellectual, and emotional movement within the space.
The collection focuses upon the narrative of one survivor of trauma, and though traumas may be experienced differently, and while PTSD may manifest itself in profoundly diverse ways, the pieces aim to capture the shared foundation of the experience — the isolation and the pure, unadulterated pain — in order to cast a universal veil onto the exploration, providing the audience with insight into one of trauma’s most important facets.
The Cambodian-Vietnamese War, beginning in the late 1970s, was largely influenced by differing political ideologies among people and organizations in both Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as the United States and China. The war over communism, socialism, and democracy helped give rise to groups such as the Communist Party of Kampuchea or Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. In 1977 and 1978, the Khmer Rouge attacked Vietnam, killing thousands of people in the process. In the aftermath of the war, various social implications occurred in Cambodia and Vietnam. Many who lived through the war, whether soldiers or civilians, were left traumatized and suffered from PTSD. Fighting resulted in large refugee communities and conscription by the respective states meant that most people in these countries were directly touched by war. Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia and the strained relationships in the region caused lasting consequences. These societal implications can still be seen today, and the Cambodian-Vietnamese War can be a reminder of the devastating consequences of war and political conflict.