The Trauma of Colonial Condition: in Nervous Conditions and Kiss of the Fur Queen
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Milena Bubenechik
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The Trauma of Colonial Condition: in Nervous Conditions and Kiss of the Fur Queen
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Anchor Academic Publishing
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9783954895878
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1
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CHF 22.30
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Englische Sprachwissenschaft / Literaturwissenschaft
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English
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93
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kein Kopierschutz/DRM
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PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
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PDF
This study depicts the traumatic condition of the formerly colonised indigenous people of Africa and Canada. The postcolonial trauma novels Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998) and Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions (1988) are first-hand accounts of colonial experience under the governance of the British Empire of the second half of the twentieth century. The semi-autobiographical novels bring up the voices of the formerly silenced natives and are pioneering accounts of the native perception of Western intrusion. The narratives portray the upsetting experiences of the era of colonisation and explore the insidious consequences of living in the midst of historical change. The novels, written in English, speak back to the canon and expose the suffering of its subjects. They depict the grim atmosphere of the colonial project and show the effects of the domination, oppression, diaspora and discrimination suffered by the natives. They are life narratives and as such reveal facts that are not recorded in history books. Both trauma novels enrich and challenge the discourse on (post)colonial trauma. The native authors, Tsitsi Dangarembga and Tomson Highway, explore the questions of identity, trauma and resistance in the context of colonization. Their approach queries traditional notions of identity formation and the common understanding of trauma and trauma healing. With their portrayal of unique means for resistance and survival, the novelists offer a challenge to the existing beliefs and theories.
Text Sample: Chapter 2.3.4, The Female Empowerment and Conclusion: Other women of the novel also show signs of mental illness and resistance. Mainini, who is feeling helpless and worn out by the weight of poverty and childbearing, succumbs to depression after her daughter's admittance to the Roman Catholic Convent School. However, her depression is not a sudden reaction to the fear of losing her daughter to British culture, but an aggravation of her prior fears. A week before Tambu's departure for the mission school, Mainini's anxiety spoils her appetite: 'she ate hardly anything' and 'she could hardly walk to the fields, let alone work in them' (57). When Tambu visits her parents in the Christmas holidays, she finds her pregnant mother in a bad condition even though her body seems to be unaffected. Tambu relates, 'she was not looking ill at all. In fact, she was looking much stronger than she had been when I last saw her' (133). Tambu reports that Mainini suffers from 'unlocalised aches all over her body' (131). Her suffering discloses the symptoms of the illness of the soul associated with trauma. After Tambu wins a scholarship and is thrilled to start her education at the white convent school, Mainini sees the validation of her concerns of losing Tambu to white culture. She develops depression and stops eating and looking after her baby: 'She ate less and less and did less and less, within days she could neither eat nor do anything, not even change the dress she wore, reacting to nothing' (187). Mainini's depression is likely to be attributed to the anxiety disorder of PTSD, after her exposure to multiple traumatic experiences of first losing her son to 'Englishness' and then the immediate threat of losing her daughter the same way. Her younger sister Lucia's 'shock treatment' (188) brings her back to washing herself and looking after her baby. Her sister's help in caring for her baby relieves at least for a while the weight of Mainini's motherhood. Moreover, with her early insights into the dangers of 'Englishness', Mainini 'is the first to actually recognize Nyasha's eating disorder, and to di
The Trauma of Colonial Condition
1
Table of Contents
3
1. Introduction
4
1.2 Trauma Studies, Identity and Literature
5
1.3 The Approach to Trauma in the Novels
8
2. Nervous Conditions
11
2.1 Colonialism and Patriarchy
11
2.2 Identity and Hybridity
19
2.3 Trauma and Resistance
31
3. Kiss of the Fur Queen
47
3.1 The Question of Identity
47
3.2 Trauma, Mythology and Communication
62
3.3 Resistance, Healing and Reconstruction
73
4. Conclusion
84
Works Cited
88
List of Abbreviations
91
