A Critical Pragmatic Study of War Traumain the Novel The President’s Gardens

Abstract

Abstract
This study aims to analyze the
novel The President's Garden s in
order to detect and explain the
methods and strategies that the
writer used to portray the trauma of
the war and the effects of this trauma
on the individual and collective
identity of the Iraq i people. The
study also aims to offer a better
understandi ng of how individuals
and societies cope with the long
lasting consequences of the violence,
oppression and foreign occupation
that Iraq has suffered from . It adopts
a qualitative research approach
because it an adequate approach that
can be used to investigate the
concepts of war trauma, power
relations and the conflicts of
ideology that are heavily prese nted
and expressed in the novel. T his
purpose is achieved by using the
tools of the Critical Pragmatics (CP)
approach to provide a deep and
accurate answer to the questions of
the study. The study has found that
the linguistic choices that are made
by the writer, such as metaphors,
euphemisms, silences, and
fragmented speech reveal a deep
engagement with the psychological
and sociopolitical dimensions of
trauma . Moreover, pragmatic tools
such as speech acts, implicature, and
presupposition have been heavily
used to reveal the hidden power
dynamics that shape the experiences
of the characters of the novel.