Scriptotherapy; Reconstruction of Identities in Virginia Woolf's The Waves

In recent years, scriptotherapy as a method of therapy has been of great importance to make a relationship between psychoanalysis and literature. The psychological power of autobiography is to create a restored feeling from a traumatic event, so that the traumatized one (writer) can cure or palliate his or her fragmented self and identity through a healing narrative strategy. In this essay, The Waves (1931) by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is investigated based on the theory of scriptotherapy coined and discussed by Suzette A. Henke regarding reconstructed identities through scriptotherapy. As a matter of fact, Henke suggests a specific means for the traumatized survivors by post-traumatic autotheraphy. By using the reformulation of traumatic memories through autobiographical writing represented by Woolf, in The Waves, this essay reveals that Woolf’s writing acts as a tool of healing for her traumatized self and identity. Specifically, this essay concentrates on the way in which Woolf shows the male and female characters like Bernard, Neville, Louis, Susan, Jinny, and Rhoda how endeavor to reconstruct their traumatized identities through therapcutically retelling or renarrating their life stories. In addition, it portrays how Woolf has been in quest for overcoming her life stressful and painful memories and putting her own life story, her traumas, in to the context of autobiographical writing. In fact, through the six characters in The Waves Woolf is in an effort to remaster his traumatic experiences; as a result, she implicitly addresses readers of the novel to be attentive listeners of her life-story in terms of fiction life-writing

Scriptotherapy; Reconstruction of Identities in Virginia Woolf's The Waves Keywords:

Autobiography , Trauma , Reconstruction of Identities , scriptotheraphy , post-traumatic stress -disorder , post-traumatic growth