DERACINATION AND TRAUMA IN SELECTED FRANCOPHONE CARIBBEAN NOVELS

Abstract

Deracination, forced migration from one locality to the other, and trauma: the attendant psychological consequences of such movement have been recurrent issues in Francophone Caribbean literature. Previous studies on deracination and trauma dwelt on transnational migration with less attention paid to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the trauma of the unspeakable (unshared). The consequences of deracination on IDPs and the attendant trauma of the unspeakable in selected Francophone Caribbean texts were, therefore, examined with a view to portraying the authors’ perspective on human displacement and trauma.

Freudian psychoanalysis, which provides insight into the psychology of colonial oppression and emphasises the id, the ego and the superego, was adopted as framework. Four Caribbean novels namely Moi, Tituba, Sorcière…Noire De Salem (MTSNDS), Traversée de la Mangrove (TDLM) La rue cases Nègres (LRCN) and Nuée Ardente (NA)were purposively selected for their common focus on IDPs and trauma of the unspeakable. Texts were subjected to content analysis.

The traumatic consequences of deracination on IDPs that run across the texts include: homelessness, lack of means of livelihood, sexual abuse, slave labour, difficult childhood and trauma of the unspeakable. Maryse Condé’s MTSNDS presents a traumatised Tituba who experiences all the aforementioned unpleasant consequences. She witnesses the public execution of her mother at a tender age, resulting in homelessness and difficult childhood. She is able to liberate herself from repressed fear by demonstrating her aggressive drives. The id is indicated in the inability of the slave masters to control their libido. The id also manifests in Conde’s TDLM which reveals Sanchez’s anguish, a displaced character who finds himself inhabiting a secluded settlement. Paradoxically, he becomes hypersexual as he takes undue sexual advantage of young unsuspecting girls, despite being hunted by the agony of imminent death. He appears unwilling to accept the precept of the ego as he seeks pleasure blindly. Zobel’s LRCN introduces José, a victim of difficult childhood having been exposed to repulsive childhood experience which obliged him occasionally to fend for himself. He also endures the agony of his grandmother who toils endlessly on sugar plantations. The superego manifests in Jose’s show of self-satisfaction, thereby forging ahead with his studies. Confiant’s NA demonstrates the indigents’ anxiety as a result of imminent volcanic eruptions with attendant increase in the number of IDPs who are traumatised following the consequent homelessness cum lack of means of livelihood. They are depressed by past volcanic eruptions, thereby becoming indifferent to the imminent disasters. In all the novels, the characters are psychologically incapacitated because they could do nothing about their situation and they had nobody who could share their grievances.

The id, ego and superego reveal the miserable and wretched conditions of internally displaced migrants in the Caribbean, which make them resign to unspeakable pain and cause extreme unproductivity and irrational behaviour. The authors portray persistent deracination and trauma in the Caribbean Islands, despite concerted efforts towards confronting the scourge.