Triumph and Trauma: Reconfiguring Self and Ethnicity through Cultural Memories in Select Aboriginal Narratives of Maurice Kenny and Narayan

Abstract

The thesis titled “Triumph and Trauma: Reconfiguring Self and Ethnicity through Cultural Memories in Select Aboriginal Narratives of Maurice Kenny and Narayan” is an attempt to analyse and decipher the function of the representation of cultural memories in the aboriginal narratives of Maurice Kenny and Narayan. Maurice Kenny is a Native American author from the Mohawk tribe of North America and Narayan is from the Malayaraya tribe of Kerala. The thesis pays attention to the recurring and constant presence of the cultural memories of trauma and triumph in the works of these authors, the modes of operation of the cultural memories, the convergence and divergence in the writing style of these writers and the results that they aim at while rigorously accommodating the cultural memories in their works. The cultural memories can be the memories of the traumatic incidents that happened to the tribal communities that effectively constituted to the dismantling of the cultural and social fabric of the community. Such traumatic incidents are called cultural trauma. These cultural memories also signify the memories of the days of grandeur and glory of the tribal communities. Adhering to the theoretical frame work of cultural memory and cultural trauma the thesis argues that the repeated representation of the cultural memories of triumph and trauma in literature adequately constitutes to the reintegration of the cultural identity of the aboriginal communities, which is fragmented in the process of external as well as internal invasions. Thus the tribal communities can regain their ethnic pride and act collectively for the common goal of resisting hegemony and reclaiming social and political agency. The cultural memories of the aboriginal communities can be hence called counter memories. The works of Narayan and Maurice Kenny are active spaces of cultural memory reiteration. The thesis has analysed the short stories and novels of Narayan and the short stories and poems of Maurice Kenny. An invariable presence of the cultural memories of triumph and trauma constitutes the narrative fabric of both the writers, even though both the writers diverge in their treatment of the same theme. When Maurice Kenny and Narayan represent the cultural memories of the tradition, culture, vision on life and nature and the tragic plight of their respective aboriginal communities,theyact as cohesive agents of cultural identity re- integration.The dispossessed and displaced communities are thereby enabled to act collectively for a common political cause.