ARTICLE

SENSE OF GUILT AND SHAME AN INTERPRETATION OF ABDULRAZAK GURNAHS GRAVEL HEART IN TERMS OF TRAUMATIC NEUROSIS

  1. HOME
  2. ARTICLE

05 Pages : 50-61

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-III).05      10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-III).05      Published : Sep 2023

Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis

Abstract

    This paper examines Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah through a psychoanalytic lens. Its framework stems from the theoretical underpinnings of Cathy Caruth’s traumatic neurosis to interpret the psychic state of the protagonist, Salim. It elucidates the reasons behind the character’s trapped psyche, which leads to a constant sensation of guilt and humiliation. It also sees how his psychological trauma affects others and results in deteriorating consequences. The qualitative method of textual analysis is implied. The researcher has found that the worst impacts of colonialism are the reasons behind Salim's painful circumstances and his regret and shame over past wrongdoings.Acute helplessness shatters his personality, and his previously repressed worries manifest as traumatic injuries, which highlights the neurotic symptoms described by Caruth. The current study highlights Caruth’s modified views on traumatic neurosis. In addition, this paper reconsiders the novel to urge society to reconsider human emotions in the contemporary era.

    Gravel Heart, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Psychoanalytic lens, Cathy Caruth, Traumatic Neurosis, Guilt and Shame

    (1) Muhammad Sabboor Hussain
    Professor, Department of English, University of Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Sitara Tariq
    MS Scholar, Department of English, University of Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan.
Fulltext PDF

References

  • Balaev, M. (2008). Trends in Literary Trauma Theory. Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 41(2), 149–166. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44029500
  • Caruth, C. (2016). Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. JHU Press.
  • Datta, S. M. (2019). Swahili Transmodernity and the Indian Ocean Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Ethic of Community in By the Sea, Desertion, and Gravel Heart. Postcolonial Text, 14(3 & 4).
  • Fadare, N. O. (2022). “Post‐Revolution Crisis, Migration, and the Quest for Self‐Identity” in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Gravel Heart. Anafora- časopis za znanost o književnosti, 9(1), 101- 119.
  • Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Norton 1975.
  • Gurnah, A. (2017). Gravel Heart. Bloomsbury: London
  • Horvitz, D. M. (2000). Literary trauma: sadism, memory, and sexual violence in American women's fiction. State University of New York Press. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2021/press-release
  • Lubitz, M. (1958). Traumatic Neurosis. Marquette Law Review, 41(4), 421.
  • Mohammad, S., & Madi, N. A. (2022). Freeing the Self from the Burden of a" Paralyzing Misery": A Psychoanalytic Study of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart (2017). Language in India, 22(2). https://www.postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/view/2548/2328
  • Oaikhena, A. O. (2022). Post-Colonial Hegemonic Indices in Adulrazak Gurnah’s Gravel Heart. Nigerian Journal of African Studies (Njas), 4(1).
  • Okungu, A. A. A. (2016). Reading Abdulrazak Gurnah: Narrating Power and Human Relationships (Doctoral dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences)

Cite this article

APA

    APA : Hussain, M. S., & Tariq, S. (2023). Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis. Global Sociological Review, VIII(III), 50-61. https://doi.org/10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-III).05

CHICAGO

    CHICAGO : Hussain, Muhammad Sabboor, and Sitara Tariq. 2023. "Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis." Global Sociological Review, VIII (III): 50-61 doi: 10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-III).05

HARVARD

    HARVARD : HUSSAIN, M. S. & TARIQ, S. 2023. Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis. Global Sociological Review, VIII, 50-61.

MHRA

    MHRA : Hussain, Muhammad Sabboor, and Sitara Tariq. 2023. "Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis." Global Sociological Review, VIII: 50-61

MLA

    MLA : Hussain, Muhammad Sabboor, and Sitara Tariq. "Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis." Global Sociological Review, VIII.III (2023): 50-61 Print.

OXFORD

    OXFORD : Hussain, Muhammad Sabboor and Tariq, Sitara (2023), "Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis", Global Sociological Review, VIII (III), 50-61

TURABIAN

    TURABIAN : Hussain, Muhammad Sabboor, and Sitara Tariq. "Sense of Guilt and Shame: An Interpretation of Abdulrazak Gurnah's Gravel Heart in Terms of Traumatic Neurosis." Global Sociological Review VIII, no. III (2023): 50-61. https://doi.org/10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-III).05