Objective Correlative and Symbolism as Means of Representing Historical Trauma in Heather Raffo 's Nine Parts of Desire

Abstract

Russian formalism, the literary theory that developed in Russia in the early 1920s, considers that without imagery, there is no art. This might go hand in hand with Eliot's theory of "the objective correlative." This paper focuses on how objective correlative, symbols, myths, and narrative combine in Raffo's play Nine Parts of Desire help to underscore the major themes and present the characters of nine different women of different ages and professions. The author, during a visit to Iraq, met some women and listened to their real stories which display the terrible reality of being a woman in times of war. Raffo, the learned western woman with Iraqi heritage, aimed to correct the false negative representation of what has happened in Iraq by the American mass media and to highlight the gap between the one-dimensional media's negative coverage of the war and the true facts of what has happened to the Iraqis. The ordeals of Iraqi women take different dimensions: emotional, economic, social, and personal. Raffo focuses on the Iraqi totalitarian regime and its practices, as well as U.S. military actions and presence and their effect on Iraqi women. The distinctive narratives of the characters mingled with a succession of detached monologues reflect the struggle of Iraqi women to survive in the middle of chaos.