摘 要

创伤后成长是由心理学家特德斯奇和卡尔霍恩于二十世纪九十年代提出的理论，强调个体在与创伤性负面事件带来的消极影响抗争中所体验到的积极变化。特德斯奇和卡尔霍恩的创伤后成长模型主要体现了受创伤个体从被动接受，到认知加工，再到创伤后成长的三个阶段。创伤后成长的概念，促进因素，评定方法的发展为文学批评中的创伤研究提供了新的视角。《可爱的骨头》是艾丽斯·希伯德于2002年出版的作品，讲述了萨蒙家长女苏茜·萨蒙于十四岁时被邻居乔治·哈维强奸并且杀害后萨蒙一家伤痛的形成与愈合。琳茜·萨蒙作为家中的次女，不仅遭受了失去姐姐的痛苦，也面临着一个被悲痛瓦解的家庭。在萨蒙一家与伤痛的抗争中，正向改变在琳茜身上得到了最为明显的体现。本文旨在结合特德斯奇与卡尔霍恩的创伤后成长模型分析《可爱的骨头》中琳茜·萨蒙的创伤后成长。本文分为五个部分：第一部分介绍主要内容和创作背景；第二部分介绍创伤发生后琳茜被动接受阶段的内在感受与外在表现；第三部分主要介绍琳茜创伤后成长过程中以自我表露和社会支持为辅助的认知加工；第四部分介绍琳茜在创伤后成长中个人力量的增长与生活态度的转变；第五部分总结全文。创伤不只可以带来痛苦，也可以带来成长。带着伤疤向伤痛告别，迎来的将会是美好的未来。

关键词：《可爱的骨头》；创伤后成长；认知加工；自我表露；社会支持

Abstract

The theory of posttraumatic growth was put forward by Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun in the 1990s. It explains the possible positive changes as a result of the struggle with traumatic event. Tedeschi and Calhoun’s model of posttraumatic growth mainly reflects three stages of posttraumatic growth, including passive acceptance, cognitive processing, and posttraumatic growth. The development of the concept, approaches, and evaluation of posttraumatic growth in psychology provide a new perspective for trauma studies in literature criticism. The Lovely Bones, written by Alice Sebold, is a novel published in 2002. It tells a story about the pain and recovery in the Salmons after Susie Salmon, the firstborn of the family, is murdered by a neighbor named George Harvey. Lindsey Salmon, as the second child of the family, faces not only the loss of a sister, but also a broken family. In the struggle with pain, Lindsey is the one who shows more positive changes. This paper aims to analyses the posttraumatic growth of Lindsey under the guidance of Tedeschi and Calhoun’s model of possttraumatic growth. This paper is divided into five parts. The first part aims to introduce the background information of this paper, including the background information of the author, the novel, relative literature, and the theory of posttraumatic growth. In the second part, inward experiences and outward manifestations of the traumatized Lindsey are introduced. The following part focuses on the process of Lindsey’s struggle with pain from a perspective of cognitive processing aided by self-disclosure and social support. The fourth part is to show Lindsey’s posttraumatic growth in personal strength and appreciation for life. The last part is the conclusion. What comes along with trauma is not only pain, but also growth. Say farewell to pain with scars, and expect a brighter future.

Key Words: The Lovely Bones; posttraumatic growth; cognitive processing; self-disclosure; social support

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1Alice Sebold and The Lovely Bones 1

1.2Literature Review 2

1.3Theory of Posttraumatic Growth 5

2 The Challenge from Pain: Passive Acceptance 7

2.1 Inward Experience 7

2.2 Outward Manifestation 9

3 The Struggle with Pain: Cognitive Processing 11

3.1 Self-Disclosure 11

3.2 Social Support 13

4 A Farewell to Pain: Posttraumatic Growth 15

4.1 Increased Personal Strength 15

4.2 Appreciation for Life 16

5 Conclusion 18

References 19

Acknowledgements 21

A Farewell to Pain:

The Posttraumatic Growth of Lindsey Salmon

in The Lovely Bones

1 Introduction

1.1 Alice Sebold and The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold is an American writer, who was born on September 6, 1963 in Madison, Wisconsin. Her debut novel, The Lovely Bones, became the biggest-selling book when published in 2002, beating back the competition from some more established authors such as Tom Clancy, Nicholas Sparks and Stephen King. It stayed in the hardback bestseller list of the New York Times for over a year with the hardcover sales being more than 2.5 million. It also won Sebold the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel in 2002 and the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction in the following year. Anna Quindlen, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992 acclaimed it as a must read book of the summer of 2002 on The Today Show^[1]. In addition, the film adaption directed by Peter Jackson, the director of Lord of the Rings, was on show in the year of 2009.

Sebold was born as the second daughter of a professor and a journalist in a family of the upper-middle-class world. Her older sister was one of the top students in school. Confronting her parents and sister, though Sebold herself was a good student in school, she often felt stressful in the family. In order to distance herself from such stress, she chose to attend Syracuse University, which is about 408 kilometers from her family. On the evening of the last day of Sebold’s freshman year, she was attacked and raped in a tunnel on her way to the dormitory. She was thought “lucky” by the police to survive this attack because there was another girl who was murdered and dismembered in the same tunnel. Yet she was not “lucky” enough to face the estrangement of her friends and the disdain of her father, who blamed her for not struggling harder. It took Sebold several years to psychologically recover from her post-assault experience. Her twenties were troubled with wrong men, drinking problem, and drug problem. After graduation from Syracuse University and a brief period of graduate study at the University of Houston, she settled in New York as a research analyst and an adjunct instructor in Hunter College. She started to write poetry and novel in New York. Just as other writers who just started their writing career, Sebold’s works also encountered many rejections. Moving to California in 1984 was a turning point both in her life and her career. She met her future husband and finished her representative work The Lovely Bones there.

Sebold has so far published three books, Lucky in 1999, The Lovely Bones in 2002, and The Almost Moon in 2007. Lucky is her account about the traumatic experience of being beaten and brutally raped in the tunnel. She is inspired to write The Lovely Bones when she hears from the police that there is another girl who is murdered and dismembered in the same tunnel. The Almost Moon deals mainly with the protagonist’s twenty-four-hour psychological activities after killing her elderly mother out of manic rage. Dark subject matter prevails in Sebold’s works and she is fascinated to understand and interpret the pain caused by such dark elements.