engleski

Childhood, Trauma, Identity in George Sand's Story of My Life

The Cult of Child developed by Romantic artists and writers celebrated childhood as a time of innocence, freedom, creativity, spontaneity and intuitive wisdom in touch with maternal nature. But this idealized image has its other side. Growing up is a complex process during which a child loses his original innocence and is forced to conform to adult norms and ‘civilised values'. By analysing and interpreting chosen passages from George Sand's autobiography Story of My Life(1847-1854) we propose to show her account of her childhood traumatic experience as a quest for selfhood and identity. After her father's death little Aurore(future George Sand) finds herself torn between her 'two rival mothers’(her mother and grandmother) who love her and want her not so much for what she is, but for what she represents, their lost husband and son Maurice. In memory of the dead son, husband and father, a destructive Oedipal triangle is created between the child and her ‘two mothers’, a situation in which Aurore finds it difficult to define herself and develop her own separate identity. This ‘life-ache’ encourages a small girl inclined to daydreaming and fantasy to create Corambé, a companion and a hero of her imagined and oral childhood ‘novels’, the origin of her poetic and moral life. In the light of literary and political influence which Romanticism still retains today in defining our perceptions of children, George Sand's story represents a valuable testimony of the process of growing up of a sensitive and intelligent girl entangled in complex family relationships.

George Sand, (traumatic) childhood, identity, growing up, family relationships, Romanticism

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