Publication

Abstract : The word trauma is the Greek term for injury or wound, but nowadays it is an umbrella term for all kinds of wounds, be it physical, emotional or psychological. According to trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, “Trauma is not the story of something that happened back then,” but “It’s the current imprint of that pain, horror, and fear living inside people.” Also, he notes that trauma is specifically an event that overwhelms the central nervous system, altering the way we process and recall memories. Though trauma is generalised in definitions, trauma and its effect on the victims vary from person to person. This paper explores the notion of trauma and its impact on the central characters of the novels: Anita: End of A Beginning by Renuka Guru and A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee. The kind of traumatic event, the durability of the trauma and at what age the characters experienced such events are analysed in this paper.