International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies

She who remembers: Gendered trauma as survival and resistance in Scholastique Mukasonga’s writing

2025-08-07T19:30:08-05:00

This study investigates how Scholastique Mukasonga’s fiction articulates gendered trauma not merely as a psychological or historical condition but as a multifaceted narrative of survival, resistance, and cultural resilience. The purpose of the research is to explore the representation of gendered trauma in her works, focusing on how women, as central characters, endure and respond to the devastation of violence, forced displacement, and profound personal loss. Through a feminist trauma lens, the study employs Judith Herman’s theory of trauma and Marianne Hirsch’s notion of postmemory to analyze how the narratives embody both personal and collective memory. Methodologically, the research offers a close textual analysis of Mukasonga’s selected works, with attention to the ways in which silence, memory, rituals, and the mother-child bond are employed as coping strategies by female characters. It further investigates how oral tradition, cultural memory, and inherited rituals become tools of both resistance and recovery. The findings reveal that Mukasonga’s narrative strategies reclaim women’s agency and voice in the aftermath of historical atrocities, portraying them not solely as victims but as active participants in cultural preservation and healing. This study contributes to trauma studies by expanding its scope through a postcolonial and gendered perspective, highlighting how literature serves as a space to record, transmit, and transform collective trauma. Ultimately, Mukasonga’s fiction becomes a powerful literary intervention that safeguards erased histories and affirms the resilience embedded in Rwandan women’s lived experiences.

A psychological study of traumatic effects of war on female characters in Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills

2025-08-12T10:09:35-05:00

This study aims to examine the psychoanalytical exploration of the female characters in Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills (1982), focusing on how the postwar period is portrayed as a traumatic experience for women. Through a qualitative analysis of the novel, the research reveals the psychological effects of war and its enduring post-event impact on the female characters’ psyches. The study is grounded in a psychoanalytic framework centered on the repressed unconscious, which accounts for the development of psychological disturbances due to suppressed memories and emotions. By discussing the postwar impact on multiple levels physical, psychological, social, and emotional—and by employing psychoanalytical concepts, it demonstrates the profound trauma experienced by the characters. Etsuko, Keiko, Niki, Sachiko, and Mariko each suffer unique psychological consequences that illustrate the layered impact of war. The analysis highlights suicide and displacement as physical consequences, repression and projection as psychological mechanisms, and marriage and motherhood as significant social pressures. Grief and loss emerge as powerful emotional forces that shape the characters’ behaviors and identities. The findings indicate that the traumatic consequences of war persist even after geographical relocation. However, the way the female characters manage their psychological burdens reflects a therapeutic process, suggesting a resilient and adaptive response. The study offers insight into the literary representation of postwar trauma and underscores the value of psychoanalytical readings in understanding women's psychological resilience.