Metaphors of Trauma in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Houris: A Comparative Analysis

Yakuba, Valentina та Tsapro, Galyna та Zvereva, Maryna (2025) Metaphors of Trauma in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Houris: A Comparative Analysis Закарпатські філологічні студії, 39 (2). с. 276-281. ISSN 2663-4899

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Анотація

This comparative study of trauma metaphors, specifically in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Kamel Daoud’s Houris, examines metaphor as a linguistic and cognitive paradigm through which trauma can be expressed. Based on trauma theory and conceptual metaphor theory, the study provides an analysis of the ways trauma is resistant to direct articulation and how it finds articulation in metaphorical constructs that reveal fragmented memory, identity, and suffering. It explores how metaphorical language acts not only as a means of expressing trauma but also as a tool for understanding its complex and layered nature. By employing metaphors, these narratives illuminate trauma's deeper psychological and cultural dimensions, allowing readers to grasp its intergenerational and collective impact. Much of Vuong’s metaphor, which is based on the Vietnamese-American immigrant experience, draws on organic, bodily, and spatial imagery to signal intergenerational trauma, displacement, and cultural alienation. As informed by Algeria’s colonial past, Daoud's metaphors use spatial and existential semiotics to convey exile and the inheritance of colonial violence. Their novels each trace trauma as an individual and collective experience. Vuong’s bodily metaphors stress trauma’s inheritance across generations, framing the body as a vessel of memory and suffering. The broken bones in the title are not physical but represent emotional wounds, and horizontal and vertical spatial metaphors trap the protagonist in displacement and liminality between his Vietnamese ancestors and American mother. Daoud’s metaphors of body and space echo postcolonial trauma, with the body representing Algeria’s historical hurts and metaphors of space depicting dislocation and liminality. So, both narratives use metaphor to reveal the sublime links between trauma, identity, and cultural memory. While Vuong uses bodily and spatial metaphors to express learned trauma, Daoud has an exile and confinement lexicon to capture collective suffering. Together, these works suggest that, while emerging from separate historical and cultural settings, trauma operates through common metaphoric forms.

Тип елементу :	Стаття
Ключові слова:	metaphor theory; trauma metaphors; Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous; Kamel Daoud’s Houris; Postcolonial literature
Типологія:	Статті у періодичних виданнях > Фахові (входять до переліку фахових, затверджений МОН)
Підрозділи:	Факультет романо-германської філології > Кафедра англійської мови та комунікації
Користувач, що депонує:	доцент Галина Юріївна Цапро
Дата внесення:	17 Черв 2025 08:39
Останні зміни:	17 Черв 2025 08:39
URI:	https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/52065

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