An Analysis of Violence and Trauma in Meena Kandasamy’s Fictions.

Pain and violence are so interwoven into the human existence, they actively shape human lives on the personal level as well as national politics. These are painful events that result in individuals being injured either physically or psychologically or both, and structures that are oppressive and all pervasive but not without their cultural, historical, political contexts. As a form of communicating first and second person experiences, literature being inherently reflexive and subversive has provided the basis for elucidating their causes and effects. This paper will thus focus on selected contemporary Indian women’s writings where the issue of violence and trauma is explored highlighting the role and importance of the post-colonial Indian women’s writings as important sites for examining more nuanced aspects of violence and trauma within the framework of systemic oppression of the communities to whom the Indian women belong. Prominent among these is Meena Kandasamy who is well known for dispensing the core of literature, activism, and feminism entwined together. In an unapologetic manner, Kandasamy writes about topics that are normally hushed up – caste atrocities, oppression, wife abuse, inferiority of women and more. Her novels such as The Gypsy Goddess and When I Hit You remain testimonial texts that unveil violent existence and trauma in India. With her powerful critique of patriarchal and casteist oppressive systems, Kandasamy turns the experience of pain – personal and political – into a blueprint for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]