| abstract | This essay investigates trauma theory and grief studies as the scholarly context for The Anniversary, a novel that explores
the effects of grief and trauma on an emotionally fragile family. Parents Richard and Maria Zittelli had a whirlwind courtship--in a mental hospital--before giving birth
to three children. When an accident takes the life of their youngest, Charlie, the overwhelmed Richard and Maria emotionally abandon their teenage twins, Anna and Rob.
Picking up ten years later, the novel takes place over the course of Anna's unexpected pregnancy and ends when she gives birth to her child and finds forgiveness for her
parents. Throughout, The Anniversary poses the question: what happens to the permanently fragile when they suffer an immense, unexpected loss? In the critical
introduction, I examine the effects of trauma by exploring the basis of trauma theory and its application to my novel. The work of Sigmund Freud, Cathy Caruth, Dori Laub
and Shoshanna Felman help to illustrate how trauma affects the human psyche. Their research suggests that trauma survivors need a listener to bear witness to the trauma.
The introduction also incorporates psychological case studies that explore how trauma and grief affect a family unit. In addition, it places my novel in context with
other works of grief and trauma fiction including the novels: Ordinary People, The Gathering, We Were the Mulvaneys, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,
The Leftovers, and The Memory Keeper's Daughter. In referring to these works along with that of Freud, Caruth, Felman, and others, this dissertation explores
the concepts of trauma, grief, bearing witness, and repetition compulsion in a both scholarly and creative framework.
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