A Study of Traumatic Experiences of Female Characters in Sophia Khan’s Novel “Yasmeen”

Abstract

The current study aims to explore the traumatic experiences of female characters of Sophia Khan’s Yasmeen. M. Balaev (2014) identified “the concept of trauma as pathological and unspeakable” in the genre of trauma fiction. The insights Bloom’s Psychological Trauma Theory (1999) provided the theoretical framework for the descriptive and critical textual analysis of the novel which in turn disclosed the traumatic experiences of leading female characters, Yasmeen, Irenie, Celeste and Mehrunissa. The current study is in the qualitative paradigm of research and suggested through findings that the female characters are suffering from various traumatic experiences resulted through the loss, distrust, immoral values, and re-enactment; the teenage young characters, Irenie and Celeste can dilute the trauma by dissociating the emotions whereas Yasmeen and Mehrunissa, the adult characters cannot cope their traumatic experiences. Though the traumatic experiences of all characters are separate in content and degree but the traumatic experiences of ‘Evolution’s legacy’, emotions of loss, and ‘Learned helpless’, constrained actions, are common to all female characters.