The Grieving Mothers of the Departed Children and How Does Trauma Manifest Non-Fictional and Fictional Cults?: Exploring The Girls, Foxlowe, After Me Comes The Flood, and The Grieving Mothers of the Departed Children

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Dengtash, Ayshe (2019). The Grieving Mothers of the Departed Children and How Does Trauma Manifest Non-Fictional and Fictional Cults?: Exploring The Girls, Foxlowe, After Me Comes The Flood, and The Grieving Mothers of the Departed Children. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis comprises a creative component in the form of a full~length novel, The Grieving Mothers of the Departed Children, and a critical component, 'How Does Trauma Manifest Non-Fictional and Fictional Cults?: Exploring The Girls, Foxlowe, After Me Comes The Flood, and The Grieving Mothers of the Departed Children.' The critical study begins with an exploration of trauma theory, and then moves on to consider contemporary examples of fictionalised cults through Emma Cline's The Girls (based on 'The Manson Family'), Eleanor Wasserberg's Foxlowe, Sarah Perry's After Me Comes The Flood, and the candidate's own novel The Grieving Mothers of the Departed Children. The non-fictional cult, 'The Manson Family', is explored in conjunction with The Girls, demonstrating how there is a porous border between the fictional and non-fictional status of cult doctrines that are based around trauma (and a promise to cure the trauma). In the sections regarding Foxlowe and After Me Comes The Flood the critical component investigates the effects of trauma and the ways trauma both forms and facilitates cults and the tendency towards cult~like philosophies. The candidate's novel The Grieving Mothers, follows the protagonist, Eternity, who after waking up in a river with amnesia, tries to adapt to life in a cult of bereaved mothers. Following a narrative that centres on trauma-induced memory loss and amnesia the novel aims to portray the way in which trauma is a vital element in the flourishing of cults, complementing the other literary pieces discussed in this thesis.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):