Correlations between Western Trauma Poetics and Sierra Leonean Ways of Healing: Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love
Journal Title: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi - Year 2018, Vol 58, Issue 1
Abstract
Aminatta Forna has been interested in the representation of trauma and ways of healing trauma in her works. Accordingly, Forna’s The Memory of Love (2010) centralises trauma and healing by reflecting on dreadful historical facts of Sierra Leoneans suffering from social and political uprisings in the 1980s and the following civil war which lasted from 1991 to 2002. The novel is written in the present tense for the greater part unlike the conventions of a narrative written in the past. In doing so, the novel experiments with time and makes readers witness the chaotic atmosphere of Sierra Leone. Besides, the novel presents non-western trauma coping strategies adopted by Sierra Leoneans such as maintaining an intact sense of purpose and establishing close contact with one’s environment. Based on these premises, the aim of this paper is to examine how the novel recounts the trauma of Sierra Leoneans through the employment of the amorphous quality of traumatic time and trauma coping strategies adopted by Sierra Leoneans.
Authors and Affiliations
Merve SARIKAYA-ŞEN
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- EP ID EP631477
- DOI 10.33171/dtcfjournal.2018.58.1.48
- Views 97
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