Fictional representations of trauma in Elias Canetti’s novel Auto-da-Fé

This dissertation examines Elias Canetti‟s novel, Auto-da Fé, in an attempt to show how it depicts the manifestations of violence and the effects of traumaon the individual and on modernist society. This analysis of Auto-da Fé concentrates on the representation of trauma on a fictional level at a time when Europe was experiencing political, social and economic upheaval after the First World War. Auto-da Fé provides an intense emphasis on the psychological effects of trauma on the characters; thereby reflecting the turmoil of this period. An analysis of Canetti‟s novel, in the light of trauma, reveals an enigmatic testimony not only to the nature of violent events, but of the way trauma resists simple comprehension. I argue that this gives rise to complexities within the narration by tracing the insistently recurring words and symbols which point to an interpretation beyond the thematic content of the text, namely one which repetitively bears witness to hidden wounds within individual consciousness. The titles of the three parts of Auto-da-Fé reflect a condition of somatic and psychosomatic dislocation: “A Head without a World”, “Headless World”, and “The World in the Head”. My argument is that the fictional trauma in Canetti‟s novel contains several characters who suffer from a breach of the self and the inability to comprehend society. The inability to fit into society results in the protagonist creating an isolated refuge in order to protect himself from the outer world. However, his alienation exacerbates his physical and emotional dislocations and ultimately leads to his destruction