Volume V Special Issue IV October 2025

Name of Author : S. Ritzy Wonderbell, Dr. B. Beneson Thilagar Christadoss

Title of the paper : Somatic Palimpsests and Psychic Echoes: Embodied Trauma in Preeti Shenoys Life Is What You Make It

Abstract: This article analyses Preeti Shenoys Life Is What You Make It 2011 in the light of the theory Bessel van der Kolks The Body Keeps the Score 2014, which puts trauma as an embodied experience instead of merely a psychological aberration at the centre stage. Shenoy focuses on the character of Ankita Sharma, a brilliant and ambitious young woman whose fall into bipolar disorder shines light upon the profound ways in which trauma writes itself onto the body, shatters memory, and ungrounds identity. Three aspects of embodied trauma are examined the body as involuntary record of suffering, the psychosomatic derangement of memory and identity, and the role of embodied practices in the process of recovery. Each section places Ankitas scars, insomnia, and numbness within the context of somatic memory, demonstrating how her path aligns with van der Kolks perspectives regarding body, brain, and trauma. The emphasis of this paper lies mostly on Ankitas lived experience, with theory being applied as an interpretive framework. In so doing, this analysis illustrates how Shenoys novel is not just an engaging tale of mental illness in India but a powerful testimony to the resilience of the body and the healing potential.

Keywords : Embodied Trauma, Psychosomatic, Somatic Memory, Trauma, Mental Illness

DOI :

Page Number : 87-90