SOCIETAL UNDERTONE OF TRAUMA IN BESSIE HEAD’S A QUESTION OF POWER

Abstract

The level of female suffering, racial and gender oppression, and the struggles of displaced marginalized women in Africa increases psychological sensitivity in African writers and scholars. The focus of this paper is to show how the protagonist of Bessie Head’s A Question of Power is caught up and is nearly destroyed by complications arising from certain social conditions fueled by patriarchal and postcolonial influences. These stifling conditions in society become instrumental in the social instability, psychological and mental imbalance of the protagonist later in life. In this paper, the trauma theory is employed to portray the consequences of universal problems like patriarchy and colonialism. The study finds out the devastating impact of oppressive patriarchal system, racism, emotional and psychological violence on the life of the protagonist. The study therefore shows how these social structures which are both restrictive and oppressive can affect the female personality and lead to trauma.