War trauma and defence mechanisms in Spanish novels: Duelo en el paraíso, Los males sagrados and La lengua de los secretos

This study aims at analyzing Duelo en el paraíso by Juan Goytisolo, Los males sagrados by Francisco Umbral, and La lengua de los secretos by Martín Abrisketa in the context of war trauma and defence mechanisms. At the core of this work lie the similar autobiographies of these three authors. Spanish Civil War that Juan Goytisolo and Francisco Umbral had direct experience as well as testimonial narratives that Abrisketa was indirectly exposed to through his father reveal the shared trauma, which binds them together. That authors reflect their own experiences to their works enables to create a sense of reality and strengthen the relationship between the reader and the protagonist. It can be seen in these works that child protagonists persist to look for ways to survive and deal with trauma even if they are left vulnerable and defenceless after such a traumatic event as war. Based on this finding, the role of defence mechanisms in alleviating the effects of trauma is being evaluated in this study. It was clearly seen that the protagonists' efforts to get as far away from reality as possible to interpret their experience as their perception of the world and themselves has changed with the war and defence mechanisms provide favourable outcomes in accordance with this purpose.