Trauma and Narrative Fragmentation in The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

T. James

Assistant Professor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli.

Abstract

The inheritance of loss by Kiran Desai is a Man Booker Prize winning novel which deals with trauma induced by various factors such as colonialism, racial and class discrimination, poverty, hatred, and violence. All the prominent characters in the novel undergo traumatic experiences which deeply scar and alter their lives. All these characters for the most part are silenced by their traumatic experiences and are struggling to cope with or come to terms with their trauma. To express this struggle, Kiran Desai employs a narrative style which is fragmented. Much like the fragmented recollection of the traumatic memories in the survivors of trauma, the narrative style is deeply fragmented to visit several characters and their lives in different timelines, countries and cultures in a seemingly random and disorderly fashion while also achieving narrative coherence. This paper aims to study the ways in which trauma is represented or expressed in the behavioural patterns of wounded characters through a deeply fragmented narrative which replicates the psyche of the survivors.

Keywords: Trauma, Fragmentation, Memory, Experience, Psyche.