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James Joyce’s Eveline: A Victim of Transgenerational Trauma

Corresponding Author : Talukdar Mohammad Misbah Uddin (misbah.eng.uddin@gmail.com)

Authors : Talukdar Mohammad Misbah Uddin (misbah.eng.uddin@gmail.com)

Keywords : Joyce, Eveline, Trauma, Transgenerational Trauma

Abstract :

Eveline is a young woman who does not have any traumatic experience herself but shows the symptoms and crises of a trauma victim. The short story does not present any evidence that Eveline was abused in her childhood, but the inactions and dissociations she exhibits in the text indicate that her inactions are the result of a trauma. Although existing critical literature focuses on various aspects of paralysis in the short stories of Dubliners, there has not been much exploration with regard to the relationship between the dissociative (in)actions of the protagonist of “Eveline” and her deceased mother’s life. Consulting the existing critical works on trauma and transgenerational trauma by Cathy Caruth, Meera Atkinson, Michelle Balaev, and Nicolas Abraham and on hauntology by Katy Shaw, this paper, from the perspective of trauma theory, examines the actions/inactions of the protagonist along with the memories that direct the protagonist in her life. This paper contends that Eveline’s (in)actions are the results of a transgenerational trauma that she receives from her mother and, therefore, she lives a life with the symptoms and crises of a trauma victim.

Published on December 31st, 2020 in Vol 31, No.2, Social Sciences