HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE: A NARRATIVE REPRESENTATION OF TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES IN YVONNE VERA’S UNDER THE TONGUE

Ifeoma Ezinne Odinye

Abstract


The rights of the girl child to her body and freedom of choice raises a hot debate in the discourse of human rights. Patriarchy and male jingoistic attitude towards the female gender seem to have encouraged the violation of the girl child’s rights. Despite several sexual orientations and gender identity rights awareness created in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the girl child’s rights are constantly violated in many cultural milieux. Hence, this paper examines rape as a form of human rights violation which could lead to trauma. This research further explores how Vera’s Under the Tongue imitates trauma through fragmentation, ellipses, repetition and massive construction of mental images to depict experiences. This paper also adopts psychoanalysis and feminist strategy of female bonding as a therapeutic measure for translating the traumatic memory of the girl child into narrative memory.

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