The effect of trauma in Shobhan Bantwal’s ‘The Dowry Bride’

Authors

  • M.Vennila Department of English, Mother Teresa Women’s University, Kodaikanal-624 101
  • Dr.M.Rajaram PG & Research Department of English, M.V.Muthiah Government Arts College for Women, Dindigul-624001.

Keywords:

Trauma Theory, Gender Disparity, Dowry Abuse, Psychological Suffering, Domestic Violence, Harassment

Abstract

Trauma Theory and its implications in literature is a versatile area owing to the dynamic nature of trauma and its meaning. Psychological trauma caused by personal, social, or cultural factors, affects and alters an individual’s personality and one’s life. Trauma studies investigate the effect and impact of trauma and its interpretation in literature and in society. It analyses trauma based on its psychological, social, and cultural significance. Trauma was earlier considered as a post-war effect. Nevertheless, with a variety of individual and cultural factors that change over time and with the values attached to it, trauma is that which causes disruption and reorientation of a person’s psyche and personality. The present paper studies trauma as an individual predicament that has long-term effects on a person’s mental health. The paper examines the trauma experienced by Megha, the central character of Shobhan Bantwal’s The Dowry Bride, in the wake of a murder attempt on her by her mother-in-law and her husband. Shobhan Bantwal, an American author of Indian origin, deals in her The Dowry Bride with gender disparities and dowry abuse that still prevail in India. The paper also analyses the enormous psychological suffering Indian brides endure through domestic violence and harassment for dowry.

References

Bantwal, Shobhan. The Dowry Bride. Fingerprint, India, 2015.

Balaev, Michelle. “Literary Trauma Theory Reconsidered.” Contemporary Approaches in Literary Truama Theory.Michelle Balaev ed., Palgrave, Macmillan, 2014.

Caruth, Cathy. Ed. Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Baltimore: John's Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

Lakshman.The Upheavals of History and Their Inter-Relation with the Physical Expression to the Identity Crisis in the Select Novels of ShobhanBantwal. Indian Scholar, Vol 1, Issue 2. Dec 2014. P 144 - 149

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Published

2024-04-12

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2024): Jamal Academic Research Journal-An Interdisciplinary (JARJ)

Section

Articles

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