Trauma, Intimacy and the Crisis of Ethical Identity in Daniel L. Jensen’s The Bridge Kingdom

M. Kishware Sulthana

Assistant Professor, Jamal Mohamed College. kishwaresulthanaenglish@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper talks about the ethical crisis that emerges from the tension between Lara’s hatred towards the nation and emotional attachment. The story revolves around Lara whose character explores a political conditioning and emotional repression through a fractured ethical-self. Lara internalizes trauma due to her sacrificial duty to a country and its people. Her marriage to King Aren makes a major impact to her psychological conflict where there is an intimacy of destabilization towards loyalty. The Bridge Kingdom depicts a major conflict in the life of Lara through her inner struggle between duty to her homeland and developing love for her enemy. 

Keywords: Trauma, Intimacy, Crisis, Ethical identity, Feminist ethics, Relational morality, Moral agency.