Identity of Survival: Literature of Trauma in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge
09/08/09
Gary Barbour
Background
The end of the Second World War destabilized Southwest Asia despite the
Allies Forces’ plans. The
polarizing attitudes of Communism and Capitalism began shaping the area into a
dangerous battleground. Stories of
the Viet Cong abound as well as atrocities committed by American soldiers, but
the violence did not end in Vietnam.
Cambodia fought its own civil war after American troops withdrew, and the
Khmer Rouge took power leading to nationwide “reeducation” programs.
Tragically, “reeducation” meant the mass murder of the educated, the
wealthy, and anyone perceived to sympathize with the former American-backed
government. Pol Pot’s government
changes effectively halted all cultural progress Cambodia had been making.
From the horror of the Killing Fields, a new story arose.
Not too distant from the regimented murder of the Holocaust were stories
of a more primal violence.
Survivors tell of murder in homes, cities and villages, not just the famed
Killing Fields, but these stories are not told in American schools.
Very little information is even made available.
This literary silence, even at the university level, promotes the idea
that tragedy only occurs in the West.
Focusing on the Holocaust and, increasingly, the mass murder of Native
Americans consumes the American version of tragedy, but every culture faces
tragedy and trauma, forcing us to look at the history and literature of the
world.
Through friends, I have seen the way Cambodian, Thai, and Vietnamese
households and families interact in a new environment.
My best friend’s family, a mix of Thai and Cambodian traditions, manages
to flourish in a country where their history is often met with confused looks.
Family plays a crucial role and they work to make others feel a part of
their lives. Despite language
barriers, I have never wondered about how welcome I am in their households.
When I started looking into Cambodian and Thai history, I found a strong
sense of family, one that could not be shaken, and after studying the horrors of
the Khmer Rouge, I began wondering how that affected families.
Pol Pot tried to restructure the family, but from the stories I’ve heard,
families only grew closer. From
this, I wanted to know what the social and cultural ramifications were.
How did the cultural identity change, and how is this evident in the
literature of a restructured country?
Current Project
With the basic knowledge of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia’s history, I
have begun finding the memoirs of survivors.
Many of the stories are told from children who survived.
I am looking at two of the most well-known writers on Cambodia, Dith Pran
and Haing S. Ngor to augment my research on the stories and history of the war,
as well as researching Trauma Theory in Literature to explore how horror affects
a personal and cultural identity.
The memoirs by children of survivors will also play a part in understanding the
generational implications. The
children of Holocaust survivors have allowed readers to better understand the
effects of World War II and the Holocaust, so a similar pattern should develop
in Cambodian families.
Plan for the Next Two Months
Over the next two months, I will do more research on Trauma literature
and how that has changed the cultural standpoint of Cambodia after the end of
Pol Pot’s regime. Cambodian
literature lags behind its neighbors and much of the world because of the
pogroms against education, so it will be important to look at stories of
Cambodian life during the regime and after the war from expatriates.
Many of the memoirs have been compiled by people who fled Cambodia during
the 70s or not long after, but they still hold a deep connection to their
homeland. I want to explore how
those stories have developed and how the trauma affects how these stories are
told and how the people look on their own past through their memories. Also,
exploring the effectiveness of trauma literature in dealing with horror will be
a pivotal part of the project.
Ideas about How to Present this Work
I plan to write the paper as a scholarly work which may present problems
when planning the presentation, but I expect the presentation to incorporate the
history of Cambodia, the ideas behind Trauma Literature, followed by a summation
of my research and the conclusions I have drawn from them.
Tentative Bibliography
Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed
Experience: Trauma, Narrative and
History. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1996.
Ngor, Haing S. Survival in the
Killing Fields. New York:
Carrol & Graf, 1987.
Pran, Dith. Children of
Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors.
New York: Yale University, 1997.
Yathay, Pin. Stay Alive, My Son.
New York: Touchstone, 1987.
Ung, Loung. First They Killed My
Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.
New York: Harper Collins, 2000.