Narrating, Witnessing, and Healing Trauma in Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive
Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive provides a case study in trauma and in the ways one might work through trauma to achieve "post-victim" status. Vogel refracts the story of sexual abuse through Li'l Bit, a narrator-protagonist who exercises control over her past experiences by dramaturgically manipulating them in the present performance. The key components that enable her adult control over her childhood trauma are forgiveness on her part (of both her Uncle Peck and herself) and witnessing on the audience's part. Li'l Bit's newfound ability to tell her story on her own terms and have that story witnessed in performance allows her to begin the healing process.
Review(s) of: Australians all: A history of growing up from the ice age to the apology, by Nadia Wheatley, illustrated by Ken Searle, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, 2013, 280 pages RRP $45.50.