The poet as judge: Assessing cultural and individual trauma in Jean Arasanayagam's Apocalypse '83 and Reddened Water Flows Clear

Abstract

This paper considers the poetry of the largely overlooked Sri Lankan author Jean Arasanayagam, through the framework of trauma and trauma theory. Trauma theory is engaged through Arasanayagam's positioning of the authorial and narrator's voice in her poems. This positioning argues that her poetic voice speaks as a “poetic judge”, and that this authority allows it to comment on the act of ethnically marking and committing acts of violence against individuals. In doing so it both reinforces and questions tenets of trauma theory. The paper begins by outlining the concept of “poet as judge” with the assistance of Martha C. Nussbaum's work. It then moves into a discussion of cultural trauma, and an elaboration on individual trauma. The paper finishes by engaging with Elaine Scarry's call to “dis-imagine ourselves”, concluding that Arasanayagam's poetry can be seen as an example of “dis-imagining” and thus complicates notions of victimization and aggression within a Sri Lankan context. She refuses to mark victimization and violence along ethnic lines and thus disturbs Sri Lankan nationalist discourse.