Table Of ContentUniversity of Nebraska - Lincoln
Traumatized Voices: The Transformation of Personal Trauma into Public Writing
During the Romantic Era
by
Karalyne S. Lowery
A DISSERTATION
Presented to the Faculty of
The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska
In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements
For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Major: English
(Nineteenth Century Studies)
Under the Supervision of Professor Stephen C. Behrendt
Lincoln, Nebraska
21 May, 2012
Traumatized Voices: The Transformation of Personal Trauma into Public
Writing During the Romantic Era
Karalyne S. Lowery, Ph.D.
University of Nebraska 2012
Advisor: Stephen C. Behrendt
Beginning as early as the 1790s and continuing throughout the nineteenth century,
it is possible to trace in British literature a distinctive line of fascination among authors
with what we now understand to be trauma and its profound effects on the lives and
behaviors of it victims/survivors. With today’s neurological proof of the changes that
take place in the brains of traumatized individuals, it stands to reason that these changes
have taken place in every century, not just the century in which we have had the
technology to view it or the vocabulary to describe it. This means that psychological
trauma is biologically and psychologically universal. Using Judith Herman’s Trauma
and Recovery and empathetic readings, this study examines the personal traumas of
several authors as related in their private writings and traces the transformation of that
private trauma into the authors’ published works. The study examines traumatic grief,
the results of an unsuccessful grieving process, and the possible traumatic captivity of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and how they manifest in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner;”
traumatic loss combined with the dissociation cultivated by William Godwin as an
abused child is discussed in conjunction with the writing of Memoirs of the Author of a
Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Mary Shelley’s many traumatic interpersonal
relationships and the unique view they provided into the victimology of Frankenstein;
and the role of empathy in creating healing relationships and in recovering from traumas
in the lives of Charles and Mary Lamb along with the difference between sympathy and
empathy in authors. Coleridge’s “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” is used as the
example for sympathetic writing and Charles Lamb’s “Christ’s Hospital Five and Thirty
Years Ago” is used as the example of empathetic writing. As a whole, this study proposes
that empathetic readings when combined with a trauma theory lens provide new insights
into Romantic works.
i
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Stephen C. Behrendt, Laura M. White, Peter Capuano,
Wendy J. Katz, and Robert Stock for their support and encouragement and for working
within the very tight timelines this project required despite their own heavy workloads.
In addition, I want to recognize the 18th- & 19th-Century British Literature Circle who
were extremely helpful in allowing me to explore my topic and by providing feedback. I
would also like to thank Beverly Rilett who was an incredible proofreader and Colonel
Kathleen Harrington whose trust and sponsorship through the United States Air Force
Academy made this entire process possible.
The views expressed in this study are those of the author and do not reflect the official
policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S.
Government.
ii
Table of Contents
Abbreviated Titles………………………………………………………………………..iii
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1
Chapter One
Coleridge’s Overarching Childhood Trauma:
Loss, Captivity, and the Nightmares They Produced…………………………………....20
Chapter Two
Writing Through Grief Publicly and Privately:
William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman as Scriptotherapy………………………………....97
Chapter Three
Victimizers and Victimization in Frankenstein:
Mary Shelley’s Transformation of Personal Trauma
into Eternally Relevant Public Drama………………………………………………….168
Chapter Four
Fractured Brilliance: Charles and Mary Lamb
and the Importance of Empathy………………………………………………………...241
In Conclusion: What Does Trauma Theory Add to Readings?.......................................322
Notes……………………………………………………………………………………324
Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….326
iii
List of Abbreviated Titles
Autobiography: Godwin, William. "Autobiographical Fragments." Collected
Novels and Memoirs of William Godwin. Eds. Mark Philip, Pamela
Clemit, and Maurice Hindle. The Pickering Masters ed. 1 Vol.
London: William Pickering, 1992. 41-51. Print.
CL: Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Volumes I-VI. Ed.
Earl Leslie Griggs. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. Print.
CN: The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Volumes 1-6. Ed.
Kathleen Coburn. New York: Bollingen; Patheon, 1961. Print.
Diary: "The Diary of William Godwin." William Godwin's Diary.
2010.Web. <http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/nav/Diary.html>.
DSM IV-TR: American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision.
American Psychiatric Association, 2000. Print.
Fragment: Godwin, William. "Autobiographical Fragment Complete 1756-
1769." Lord Abinger's Shelley-Godwin Collection in Bodleian
Library. Eds. Lewis Patton, et al. Reel 1, 1788. Microfilm.
G&M: Wardle, Ralph M., ed. Godwin & Mary: Letters of William Godwin
and Mary Wollstonecraft. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1977. Print.
GL: Godwin, William, and Pamela Clemit. The Letters of William
Godwin. Vol. 1, 1778-1797. Oxford (GB); New York; Auckland
[etc.]: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.
Journal: Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The
Journals of Mary Shelley, 1814-1844. Eds. Paula R. Feldman and
Diana Scott-Kilvert. Volumes 1 and 2. Oxford; New York:
Clarendon; Oxford UP, 1987. Print.
LCL: The Letters of Charles and Mary Anne Lamb. Volumes I-III. Ed.
Edwin W. Mars, Jr. Ithica; London: Cornell UP, 1976. Print.
Length: Godwin, William. "Analysis of Own Character Begun Sep 26,
1798." Collected Novels and Memoirs of William Godwin. Eds.
Mark Philip, Pamela Clemit, and Maurice Hindle. The Pickering
Masters ed. 1 Vol. London: William Pickering, 1992. 41-51. Print.
iv
Letters: Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Edited Letters of Mary
Wollstonecraft Shelley. Ed. Betty T. Bennett. 1 Vol. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins UP, 1995. Print.
Memoirs: Godwin, William. Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman. Pamela Clemit & Gina Luria Walker eds.
Toronto: Broadview, 2001. Print.
PBS Letters: Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Letters. Ed. Frederick L. Jones. 1 Vol.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. Print.
Works: The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb: Volume I. Miscellaneous
Prose. Ed. E.V. Lucas. London: Methune & Co., 1903. Print.
1
Introduction
By the end of the eighteenth century, medical science was emerging from a
comparatively primitive and often superstitious view of both the human body and the
human mind and was beginning to embrace a more sophisticated understanding that was
rooted in eighteenth-century investigations not only of anatomy, physiology, and
medicine but also of psychology and human behavior. Early Romantic writers like
William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, William Godwin, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Anna Barbauld, and Charlotte Smith were among the first to incorporate
into their works the new insights into human behavior that were emerging from the
studies of scientists like David Hartley, Humphrey Davy, David Hume, and F.J. Gall.
Richard Holmes, in The Age of Wonder, shows how involved authors like Wordsworth,
Coleridge, and even Lord Byron were with prominent scientists Joseph Banks, William
Hershel, and Humphrey Davy. Beginning as early as the 1790s and continuing
throughout the nineteenth century, it is possible to trace in British literature a distinctive
line of fascination among authors with what we now understand to be trauma and its
profound effects on the lives and behaviors of it victims/survivors.
The Implications of Individual Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Most literary scholars consider trauma studies relatively recent; however, Charles
R. Figley, one of the leading researchers in the early days of traumatic stress studies,
2
traced the first mention of trauma and its connections to “hysterical reactions” to ancient
Egypt. These physicians reported their findings in 1900 B.C.E. in Kunyus Papyrus,
which is one of the earliest medical textbooks (xvii). Figley, who helped found The
Journal of Traumatic Stress, defines the study of trauma, or traumatology, as “the
investigation and application of knowledge about the immediate and long-term
psychosocial consequences of highly stressful events and the factors which affect those
consequences” and attributes the growth in the field to the understanding that different
fields of scholarly studies and patient therapy were converging around the theme of
traumatic stress (xvii). The next figure to study trauma was John Erichsen, a British
physician in the 1860s, who noticed that victims of railway accidents suffered from a
trauma syndrome. However, Erichsen attributed the syndrome to either shock or spinal
concussion (Leys 3). This was the first time that trauma was associated with a physical
injury, but not the last. In fact, the word “trauma” in English initially meant “a wound, or
external bodily injury in general,” and was first used in English in 1694; although, it is
important to note that the word “trauma” derives from the German “traum,” which
translates as dream (OED). In Trauma: A Genealogy, Ruth Leys pinpoints the origin of
the psychological meaning of trauma to the fin de siècle of the 19th century, and the
Oxford English Dictionary traces the first psychological use of the word to William
James in Psychological Review, where he writes: “Certain reminiscences of the shock
fall into the subliminal consciousness, where they can only be discovered in ‘hypnoid’
states. If left there, they act as permanent ‘psychic traumata,’ thorns in the spirit, so to
speak.” (qtd in OED, 199). Leys attributes the shift in meaning to trauma as a “wounding
of the mind” to the works of J.M. Charcot, Pierre Janet, Alfred Binet, Morton Prince,
