The motifs of eyes and feet in Irish and Lebanese poetry, dance, and caricature. (c2010)

Abstract

This thesis examines the cultural representation of traumatic memory. It assumes the existence of a “traumatic unsaid” that seeks expression by indirect means in art. In the case of the Irish and Lebanese cultural productions examined here, this thesis argues that artists repress painful emotions which find expression through displacement—a psychological defense mechanism in which there is an unconscious shift of emotions, affect, or desires from the original object to a more acceptable or immediate substitute—in the form of different motifs or symbols.