The Nightmare Realm : trauma, the child and creative practice in fictional dream worlds

Abstract

This project consists of two parts. A creative work, a novel, of approximately 56,000 words and an exegesis of 25,000+ words. The Nightmare Realm is a novel about a 12-year-old boy Oliver who takes a wrong turn in a dream and gets lost inside a dream world. It is a symbolic representation of childhood trauma, post-trauma and adult psychosis. Part I of the exegesis looks at the structure and qualities of a dream worlds and provides an analysis of the different types of dream worlds throughout history. I define a dream world as the union of the qualities of a dream with a fictional reality. It draws on literary and genre theory, the study of fairy tales, dream science, psychoanalysis and psychology, narratology in dream studies. I argue that a dream world is best characterised as a mode rather than a genre, in part because of its versatility and ability to apply to any genre. In part II I argue that young readers frequently engage with texts written for adults and being conscious of the "eavesdropping child" can deepen rather than spoil a work. I discuss trauma theory, particularly secondary traumatisation and the implications for how the novel addresses its readers. I argue that the nightmare has a connection to trauma and discuss the symbolic nightmare as a less explicit and "safer" form. I also analyse the conception of the dream-child and how the adult reader is positioned in relation to a child protagonist. Part III examines creating child and teenage characters as an adult writer (in part by looking at teenage authors writing on dreams) and argues that memory and archive are both fallible but still useful tools for a writer. I argue that when the "dreamer" of a text is a young person in comparison to an adult protagonist it heightens the dream-like effect and the emotional effect. I will demonstrate this through a comparison of Anna Kavan's novels Ice and Sleep Has his House. The exegesis in part reflects on my own practice, and the issues I grappled with in representing childhood trauma through a symbolic nightmare world, which yields insights on creative practice.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English