Browsing by Author "HADJER Sara"
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Item Trauma in West African Civil Wars, case studies: Abani’s Song for night (2007) and Kamara’s and McClelland’s The bite of the mango (2008)(University Mouloud Mammeri, 2021) HADJER SaraThe following research paper deals with the issues of childhood and war trauma in Chris Abani’s Song for night (2007) and Mariatu Kamara’s and Susan McClelland’s The bite of the mango (2008). The purpose of the study is to compare between the writings of these two African authors, the Nigerian novelist Chris Abani and the Sierra Leonean survivor Mariatu Kamara, who write nearly about similar topics, but in vastly different ways during the same period of time; that is the West African Civil Wars. As a whole, the research aims at examining how African children cope with traumatic experiences and how childhood narratives represent the disarray in Africa's newly independent nations.To attain my objective, I have used Davis, C., & Meretoja, H The Routledge companion to literature and trauma (2020) in addition to other literary theories and criticism. The first chapter of my discussion analyzes the two works by examining trauma through the lenses of Witnessing and Narrative which are the result of what the characters have been through or seen others go through after experiencing or witnessing traumatic events like amputation, rape, or the loss of loved ones. In the second chapter, I examined the way the two authors portrayed their protagonists, and how those depictions relate to the symptoms of victimization and perpetrator trauma. In doing so, I have shown that the two protagonists; Mariatu and My Luck were not given a carefree upbringing by the adults in their respective lives, who instead instilled on them a sense of responsibility and accountability. This goes without saying that the western media's use of war victims to portray the state of affairs in the war-torn countries is a result of their engagement in the conflict that contributed to the perpetuation of a set of stereotypes which have been utilized in a degrading manner towards these victims. Thus, the traumas of the perpetrators and the victims of violence are tackled in these novels; however, my findings demonstrated that the two sides have the same sets of symptoms which allowed me to make this comparative study possible