Trauma in the Theater of Memory
Trauma in the Theater of Memory: a critical analysis of Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation
Student: Erin Aycock
Thesis Advisor: Deirdre Boyle
Abstract: This thesis is a multi-disciplinary analysis of Jonathan Caouette’s breakout 2004 documentary, Tarnation. A hit at Sundance, the amateur video (initial budget less than $300) secured international release and became a popular and critical sensation. In unpacking the reasons for Tarnation’s success and appeal, I discuss the role of emerging technology in the making of the video. Using a variety of theoretical frames, I discuss the documentary as a cultural product reflecting ideas in play in many mediums and genres. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is an in-depth discussion of the rise of traumatic themes in literary memoir, making the argument that Tarnation, while similar in theme and content to many literary memoirs, exists as a hybrid text that bends the limits of the autobiographical genre in pursuit of new ways of representing trauma and its disruptive qualities. Chapter two shifts focus to the structure of the video itself and focuses on the concept of memory, in both its psychological and cultural manifestations. I discuss the ways the documentary’s structure mirrors the characteristics of memory and the processes of remembering itself. The final chapter engages complex ideas about the ways in which the audience negotiates the dangerous terrain of trauma and its representation in Tarnation and the complicated emotional and ethical consequences of this close proximity (or witnessing) of trauma.