Trauma and Resilience in Osundare’s City Without People

Abstract

The paper examines the representation of trauma in City Without People, the collection of poetry by Nigerian poet-scholar, Niyi Osundare. The critical lens of the study also focuses on how the poet employs poetry as a therapeutic means of working through the trauma engendered by the Hurricane Katrina experience in the United States of America. Assumptions from trauma theory serve as theoretical framework for the study. The research reveals that, contrary to the position held by some trauma theorists that traumatic experiences defy remembrance and are unspeakable, Osundare’s collection shows the possibility of remembering traumatic experiences and articulating them. Also, there is evidence that the postmemory of slavery connects with the collective trauma of the Katrina experience among the Black community. City Without People also demonstrates a quintessential instance of the deployment of expressive writing as scriptotherapy.