Trauma and getting on in Kate Mulvany's The Seed and Helen Pearse-Otene's Ka Mate, Ka Ora

Abstract

Through reading Kate Mulvany's The Seed and Helen Pearse-Otene's Ka Mate, Ka Ora, two plays by and about children of Vietnam War veterans, this essay gives an alternative account of trauma from dominant trauma theories.Turning over models in which the traumatised subject is characterised as being disconnected from themself and others, this essay traces the way second and third generation subjects who were born into a scene of trauma understand their condition as being one of radical connectivity. This awarness influences the way the characters in these plays cope with the material and emotional burdens of war and how this informs their stratagy for survival in ordinary life.