Reclaiming Existence Trauma and Resilience in the Select Works of Edwidge Danticat

Abstract

Violence, poverty, trauma and the silencing of the victims have tremendously influenced the newlinelives of the Haitian community. This research is a record of the indomitable human spirit of the newlineHaitians under the inhuman conditions as they attempt to validate their existence and embark on newlinetheir better future. The works selected for the study are Edwidge Danticat s: Breath, Eyes newlineMemory (1994), The Farming of the Bones (1998) and The Dew Breaker (2004). The study seeks newlineto explore the pain and pleasure, past and present, and dream and reality of the traumatized newlineindividuals. This study attempts to explore the psychological, historical and collective trauma of newlinethe Haitian individuals and the community, as portrayed in the works of Edwidge Danticat. The newlinesecond chapter probes into the psychological trauma experienced by the Haitian women because newlineof rape and that of a particular cultural practice. The research gives an insight into the state of newlineabjection the characters had to experience, as they reject their self and the (m)other/s. The third newlinechapter explores and studies in detail the historical trauma of the Haitians due to the genocide newlineand massacre. This chapter examines the lives of the Haitians shattered amidst political newlineupheaval, poverty and also, nature s fury. The fourth chapter explicates the collective trauma that newlinethe Haitian community had to experience because of the political and social mayhem in Haiti. newlineThis brings to the fore, the brutal past and fragmented memories of the Haitians. In this era of newlinechaos, war and unrest, the thesis is set to analyze how the battered and traumatized Haitians, newlineendure, adapt and become resilient. They are determined individuals, who do not fail to strive newlinetowards building a better tomorrow. Truly it instils hope in humankind, when resilient characters newlinereclaim and rebuild their life towards a stable future. newlinei) Major objectives: newlineThe brief objectives of the study are: newlineand#61623; to explore the cause and impact of trauma in the lives of the Haitian community through newlinethe select works of Edwidge Dant