Absence-Presence Motif and Transgenerational Trauma in Selected West Indian Novels: A Panoramic Female Perspective
| dc.contributor.author | Odhiambo Job | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-09-26T06:31:43Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-09-26T06:31:43Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-03 | |
| dc.description | A Thesis Submitted to the School of Law, Arts and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Arts (Literature) of Kenyatta University, March, 2024 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This study advances the position that parental absences result in trauma. It sought to establish the impact that these experiences and memories have on the psyche of the child character. It contended that these traumas were transferred unconsciously across generations. These transferrals are aggravated by the history of the West Indies – with one of the most significant events being the translocation of human beings from other continents into the archipelagos, and within the Americas. In both cases, this study maintains that these translocations resulted in the disintegration of the family unit for the slaves and their descendants. The ramification of this break down was the rise of the mother figure, or the matriarch; an idea that this region’s Literature captures as one of its recurrent motifs. This is also a study that sought to examine the presentation of trauma by studying literary works written and set in different time periods. The novels under study are Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, Merle Hodge’s Crick Crack, Monkey and Marcia Douglas’ The Marvellous Equation of the Dread: A Novel in Bass Riddim. There was purposive sampling of these texts. Additionally, this study used Psychoanalytic Theory, Trauma Theory and aspects of Formalism to understand the psyche of the child character. This is a qualitative research based on close reading of the aforementioned novels. It is expected that this study will help in the understanding of the impact that the abdication of the parental duties had on the psyche of the child character as she is growing up. This study established that trauma affects how traumatised characters perceive the passage of time. It recommends that further research be done on trauma and the perception of the flow of time, especially in texts where there is the recurrent use of the ‘returnee motif.’ | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/28874 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.title | Absence-Presence Motif and Transgenerational Trauma in Selected West Indian Novels: A Panoramic Female Perspective | |
| dc.type | Thesis |