A Study Of Trauma And Recovery In Yiyun Li's Gold Boy,Emerald Girl

Gold Boy,Emerald Girl(2010),the second short story collection of Yiyun Li shares the common theme of trauma like her other works.With the guidance of Judith Herman's trauma theory,this thesis generalizes the individual trauma,intergenerational trauma and cultural trauma from three stories and analyzes their causes,traumatic symptoms and recovery methods.Individual trauma is exemplified by the intense humiliated of Teacher Fei in “A Man Like Him” whose grudge for the traumatic experience impedes his recovery process.Due to the weak parenting ability,the eccentric widow Professor passes her trauma on her son whose marriage with her lonely student brings hope to the trauma recovery of the whole family.Cultural trauma in “kindness” is exhibited through the insecurity of orphans and the aphasia of women in specific historical and cultural traits.Yiyun Li's tenderness,respect and humanistic concern toward her characters make the depressed experience of reading heartening.She conveys her universal humanistic concern through Chinese characteristic stories to explore the plight of the whole humankind and provides her solutions for those issues.