‘To Name the Unnameable is a Curse’: Silence as an Enunciation of Trauma in Yvonne Owuor’s Dust (2014) And the Dragonfly Sea (2019)

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dc.contributor.authorOmwocha, Verah Bonareri
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-04T06:50:29Z
dc.date.available2023-04-04T06:50:29Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.descriptionArticleen_US
dc.description.abstractVarious studies have interrogated the language of silence as a powerful tool of communication. This paper adds to such studies by interrogating silence as an enunciation of trauma in Yvonne Owuor’s texts Dust (2014) and The Dragonfly Sea (2019). Focusing on the characters of Akai and Ajany in Dust and Munira and Ayaana in The Dragonfly Sea, this paper is a critical interrogation of how these characters use silence to narrate their traumas. The characters under interrogation embody silence as the language of trauma in this postcolonial nation. They seem plagued by the memories of the traumatic experiences they undergo and this hinders their ability to use speech to articulate their pain. The paper starts with an introduction that covers an overview of related literature and then goes on to explore the binaries between lack of verbal speech, oppression, resistance, and trauma as espoused by the female characters. This paper also analyses the depiction of violence and silencing of the female characters by the men in their lives and on a larger scale, the silence enforced by state machineries and its metaphoric function in this post-independent country. Therefore, interpreting silence offers a multiplicity of meanings and different layers and convergences of meanings upon which it may be interpreted. It also discusses breaking that silence, a signifier of healing. The study is based on Literary Trauma Theory and trauma theory tenets as advanced by the following trauma theorists: Cathy Caruth, Dominic LaCapra, Judith Herman, Maria Root, Alan Gibbs, and Laura Brownen_US
dc.identifier.citationOmwocha, V. B. (2022). ‘To Name the Unnameable is a Curse’: Silence as an Enunciation of Trauma in Yvonne Owuor’s Dust (2014) and The Dragonfly Sea (2019). East African Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 5(2), 207-220.en_US
dc.identifier.issn2707-4285
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/25100
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherEast African Nature and Science Organizationen_US
dc.subjectSilenceen_US
dc.subjectTraumaen_US
dc.subjectPostcolonialen_US
dc.subjectOppressionen_US
dc.subjectFemininityen_US
dc.title‘To Name the Unnameable is a Curse’: Silence as an Enunciation of Trauma in Yvonne Owuor’s Dust (2014) And the Dragonfly Sea (2019)en_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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