Traces of Trauma in Bones that Speak: Wajdi Mouawad’s Forêts

Abstract:This article examines Lebanese-Québécois playwrightWajdi Mouawad’s 2006 play Forêts in the context of the trauma theory of psychoanalysts Jean- Max Gaudillière and Françoise Davoine. It argues that Forêts continues in the trajectory of Mouawad’s previous works through its metaphorical use of the concept of l’irruption de l’autre, even while the play represents a move away from the specifics of Mouawad’s own biography. Examining the dialogue and the thematic and scenic structure of the play, the article demonstrates Mouawad’s sensitivity to a universal understanding of the psychic functioning of personal and historical trauma as disruptions in a subject’s relationship to time.