Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Hagood, Taylor

Abstract

In recent decades there has been a great deal of scholarly and scientific work examining both the impact and the transmission of trauma. The focus of this thesis is the transmission of the trauma of genocide and large-scale historical traumas, specifically that seen in the Holocaust and the missionization of the California Indians in the 18th century. Through the analysis of the autobiographical narratives composed by three generations of Holocaust survivors, as well as one composed by a later generation descendant of the California Mission Indians, I argue that silence is not only a manifestation of trauma but also a tool of its transmission. I further argue that when this silence is broken and the stories are told we begin to see a shift in the traumatic memory away from re-traumatizing the later generations and toward preserving an accurate historical memory without the significant psychological cost to the later generations.

Extent

65 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00004616

Format

pdf

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