fragmentation

The present paper explores Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy in an attempt to highlight the importance of the establishment of a well-defined identity as the crucial step in the life of Tashi, a victim of genital mutilation. She becomes whole and healthy once she finds a voice and remakes her severed ties with the black community. Her individual acts of rebellion are complemented with collective political action against genital mutilation. Butler’s view, agency is a restorative energy which works against fragmentation and opens a new possibility for psychic healing as the essential path to the formation of an individual identity. The paper explores the path taken by the novel’s female protagonist to validate her right as an active agent and defy the objectifying assumptions which deprive women of the right to be treated as human subjects. The long-held womanist aspirations shared by Tashi and her fellow sufferers matched by the desire to restore the lost agency is the only hope given to black women to establish their own voice. The protagonist’s final healing is thus achieved through the healthy interaction between individual as well as collective acts of rebellion: individual agency accompanied by political and social transformation.

This s tudy explores traumatic effects and healing in Toni Morrison’s Home based on Cathy Caruth’s theory of trauma. By analyzing the novel’s portrayal of trauma, it inves tigates the manifes tations of trauma, the mechanisms of healing, and the interconnectedness between literary representations and academic trauma theory. The s tudy enhances the unders tanding of the memories of war and s truggles with feelings of guilt and shame. Reviewing exis ting literature, it identifies gaps in the application of Caruth’s concepts in analyzing the novel, emphasizing the need for a more in-depth exploration. The methodology involves applying Caruth’s theories to Morrison’s narrative s trategies, examining fragmentation, belatedness, and repetition related to characters’ traumatic memories and healing. The research ques tions address how Morrison depicts the healing process, the narrative techniques employed to convey trauma effects, and the contribution of literary devices like flashbacks to trauma representation. By bridging trauma theory with literary analysis, the s tudy concluded Morrison’s novel Home indicates the traumatic experiences of Frank Money’s Korean War and racial violence, which not only trigger personal traumas but also reflect his torical traumas affecting African American experiences.