Abstract
ABSTRACTIn this article, I explore Brian Chikwava's depiction of the trauma of displacement in Harare North by harnessing the trauma theory, as well as the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Laing, in order to represent the psychological experiences of the nameless narrator and other characters in his narrative. I argue that the loss of ontological security they experience occurs from the trauma of non-belonging as they attempt to deal with the cultural and psychological trauma of living in metropolitan London. Significantly, the article reveals that the existential disorientation that nameless narrator suffers is from his refusal to reconstruct his identity as he attempts to deal with the tensions of life in the Diaspora after having had a mainly rural upbringing in Zimbabwe. By the narrative's end, the alienation and fragmentation caused by the trauma of dislocation affect Chikwava's protagonist to such an extent that he completely falls apart and succumbs to the sanctuary of insanity.
Published Version
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