This thesis involves an examination of selected texts of fiction with respect to narratives and descriptions of post – trauma, primarily manifested as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in the light of the Vietnam War. It stresses on the relevance of fiction as a site of representation and performance of trauma. Based on Anne Whitehead’s (2004) assertion that fiction remains an inevitable substrate for the expression of trauma even though paradoxically trauma eludes representation in language and fiction is language, this project points to the necessity of engaging with fiction while studying trauma, thereby addressing an existing gap in medical humanities. This thesis closely examines explorations of trauma in the works of five contemporary novelists, which include Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer (2015), Andrew Lam’s Birds of Paradise Lost (2013), Tim O’ Brien’s The Things They Carried (1990), In the Lake of Woods (1994), and Tomcat in Love (1998), J.M. Coetzee’s Dusklands (1974, 1982), and Philip Roth’s The Human Stain (2000). Through an extensive close reading of the primary texts and the incorporation of an interdisciplinary framework of contemporary trauma studies, memory studies, neuroscience, and theories of biopolitics, this thesis examines literary representations of the various visages of posttraumatic conditions and their engagement with memory, embodiment, experientiality, and narrativity.

This thesis ventures into the field of medical humanities because this allows for a dialogue between two diverse knowledge groups – medical science and the humanities. Poetry, drama and autobiographies talk about illness and disability because these are part of the human condition and it is the role of fiction and imagination to explore the same (Montgomery 2001). This examines literature as more than just a reservoir of human conditions but helps us understand those conditions in the form of a narrative, which builds better cognitive understanding (Montgomery 2001). As stated, this research is primarily interested in studying the entanglements of contemporary trauma theory, memory studies, and biopolitics in selected works of fiction that deal with post-trauma associated with the Vietnam War. This will be an original research endeavor that affirms the importance of fiction in the study of mental health conditions. The aim of this thesis is to arrive at new ways of reading the selected texts in correlation to the themes of trauma, memory, embodiment, narrativity, and experientiality with respect to the convergence of the Vietnam War and PTSD.

Keywords: trauma, memory, refugee crisis, PTSD, Vietnam War