![]() ![]() The paper adopts a comparative research methodology, contrasting the trauma narrative strategies in the two novels. Beloved tells the harrowing story of an enslaved black mother who murdered her baby to save her from a similar fate. The Kitchen God’s Wife tells the hardships a Chinese immigrant woman faced in her feudal patriarchal homeland and her struggle to communicate with her American-born daughter. These novels, representative of Asian and African American experiences, shed light on individual and cultural traumas rooted in war, racial discrimination, and systemic prejudices. This paper sets out to analyse The Kitchen God’s Wife and Beloved, primarily focusing on mother-daughter relationships and trauma representation techniques. Additionally, Anne Whitehead’s Trauma Fiction, published in 2004, bridged the gap between trauma theory and literary depictions, creating a novel lens through which contemporary fiction could be analysed. These narratives serve as powerful reminders that, as Toni Morrison noted, understanding one’s history is crucial to understanding oneself (Page, 1995). Novels like Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife and Toni Morrison’s Beloved embody the trauma experienced by marginalised communities, with themes touching upon racism, war, poverty, and cultural restrictions. ![]() In literature, trauma’s portrayal has found resonance, particularly within American minority writings. ![]() Jeffrey Alexander’s introduction of “cultural trauma”( 2012) further broadened the scope of research. With luminaries like Cathy Caruth and Judith Herman exploring trauma’s intersection with history and everyday life, the field began recognising the profound societal implications of traumatic experiences. Scholars expanded the scope to include the study of concentration camp survivors and responses to feminist movements. Early theories, including those from Jean-Martin Charcot and Freud, examined trauma’s psychological dimensions.īy the 1980s, trauma theory research underwent a renaissance, spurred by the recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the wake of the Vietnam War. Trauma criticism, emerging in the 1990s in the United States, has deep roots in psychoanalytic theory, with Freud’s contributions serving as a foundational bedrock. Shoshana Felman aptly describes it as “a century of trauma and (at the same time) a century of trauma theory” ( 2002). The twentieth century was a period of unparalleled upheaval, with events such as armed conflicts, nuclear bombings, the Holocaust, racial trauma, and religious conflicts in the context of apartheid, leaving a lasting impact on global consciousness. This underscores the paramountcy of acknowledging personal and communal traumas and championing a humane approach to trauma victims. The emphasis on trauma literature is pivotal, both for a comprehensive understanding of traumatic events and the advancement of trauma research. Tan and Morrison, using fragmented narrative, vividly depict their protagonists’ harrowing traumas, and offer invaluable insights into the experiences of marginalised communities. Through a lens focused on mother-daughter dynamics and trauma representation, the study illuminates the novels’ shared themes of motherhood and the agonising internal battles of trauma-afflicted mothers. This research scrutinises the application of fragmented narrative in two seminal works: Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife published in 1991 and Toni Morrison’s Beloved published in 1987. This technique aptly captures the often-ineffable nature of traumatic experiences. A narrative technique pivotal to this literature is the fragmented narrative, mirroring both the inherent nature of trauma and its external portrayal. As an essential subset of trauma studies, trauma literature acts as a testament to victims’ experiences. Trauma theory, which emerged in the early 1990s, unveiled the deep-rooted violence characterising modern civilisation. ![]()
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