Volume VI Special Issue I January 2026

Name of Author : Dr. Bindu Ann Philip

Title of the paper : Invisible Labours, Unspoken Wounds: A Trauma Theoretical Reading of Memory and Narrative in The Joys of Motherhood

Abstract: This paper explores the interplay of trauma, memory, and narrative form in Buchi Emechetas The Joys of Motherhood, through the lens of trauma theory, particularly drawing on the work of Cathy Caruth. It argues that the novel represents trauma not only as individual psychological suffering but as a historically and culturally embedded experience shaped by gender, colonial modernity, and shifting traditional structures. Nnu Egos life as a mother becomes the site where personal, generational, and cultural traumas converge through child loss, polygamy, poverty, urban alienation, and social invisibility. The narrative form itself reflects this trauma through techniques such as irony, symbolic motifs, narrative silences, temporal disjunction, and fragmented identity. The paper analyses how memory functions both as a source of identity and a locus of rupture, as the protagonist is haunted by unfulfilled expectations, unreciprocated sacrifices, and the collapse of meaning around motherhood. The ironic title, third person narration, and unresolved closure further underscore the novels refusal to offer redemption or narrative coherence, echoing the traumatic experience it depicts. Ultimately, the paper argues that Emechetas novel invites the reader not just to witness a mothers suffering but to confront the structural and emotional violences embedded in postcolonial gender roles and expectations. The trauma memory lens allows for a deeper reading of the texts ethical and aesthetic strategies, situating it as a critical engagement with the silenced histories of African motherhood.

Keywords : Trauma theory, Maternal subjectivity, Narrative fragmentation, African feminism, Gendered trauma, Igbo culture

DOI :

Page Number : 11-16