Volume IV Special Issue I January 2024

Name of Author : Nisa Teresa John

Title of the paper : Memories of Trauma in the New Odyssey: A Study on the Crises of the Refugee Children in Syria with reference to Zins Born In Syria

Abstract: The prevalence of interpersonal violence and other traumatic events in our culture is now understood to be far greater than previously thought. The idea that psychological trauma can render its victims amnesic for the traumatic event has been a fixture of psychotherapy since its beginnings in the late 19th century. It was firmly enshrined in popular culture in the mid-20th century in films like Random Harvest 1942, Spellbound 1945, and The Snakepit 1948. Films play a crucial role in the social understanding of traumatic events and influence the survivors of trauma in positive and negative ways. Also, films, by assuring an international audience, facilitate understanding they help the survivors realize that they are not alone in their sufferings. Through representation as a medium, films visualise the shattering experiences of violence and their traumatic encoding in individuals, collectives, bodies, and psyches. It is through children that the injustice and absurdity of war are seen and felt. Hernan Zins Born in Syria focuses on the children undertaking traumatic journeys across Europe in search of a new life, leaving behind them broken families and a broken nation. The documentary focuses less on the war and more on the aftermath. The film traces the difficult journeys across Europe of seven children, moved around by authorities who are sometimes well intentioned, sometimes simply seeking to get rid of a problem. The paper studies how Zins documentary has portrayed the trauma faced by Syrian refugees, especially children, migrating from Syria to the UK. The urgency and sense of danger that Born in Syria greets us with in its opening sequence of a dingy boat full of refugees landing on shore is almost cinematic so tangible and so different from our urban lifestyle. But this is reality for Syrian refugees recent and real.

Keywords : trauma, absurdity, popular culture, refugees, psyche, real.

DOI :

Page Number : 26-30