Narrating the Indescribable: Psycho-Traumatic Persona of "the Woman" in Rahimi’s "The Patience Stone"

Saleem Akhtar Khan; Muhammad Uzair Khan

doi:10.47264/idea.lassij/5.1.26

Authors

Saleem Akhtar Khan Department of English, University of Sialkot, Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan.
Muhammad Uzair Khan Department of English, Higher Education Department (HED), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0557-2900

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47264/idea.lassij/5.1.26

Keywords:

trauma, terror, recovery, fiction, female character, talking cure, depiction of trauma, fiction writing, traumatic history, narrativizing trauma, literary narratives, experiences of protagonist

Abstract

The paper critiques Rahimi’s novel with reference to the representation of the traumatic experiences of the protagonist. Conversing with relevant postulates of trauma theory, the researchers have identified different dimensions of the excruciating encounters and, also, their ramifications. With the purpose to look for traces of both collective and individual trauma in the novel, the article negotiates the portrayal of the female character to expose multiple layers of the agony triggered by the sense of being victimized unjustly. The mere depiction of trauma is the problem with most literary narratives without shedding light on the healing process, despite the fact that theorists have engaged with the possible solutions for overcoming trauma. However, this novel is an exception that is why the recuperative aspect has been specifically focused. The analysis suggests that the novel is an attempt to give voice to the unspeakable, narrating the traumatic history, with the help of fiction because, in the Freudian idiom, telling a story is a ‘talking cure’ which helps in the healing process. Moreover, the act of narrating the traumatic history of a nation also proves to be palliative for the collective consciousness.

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