BATIYA ÖZGÜ TRAVMA YAZINBİLİMİ VE SIERRA LEONE'A ÖZGÜ İYİLEŞME YOLLARI ARASINDAKİ KORELASYONLAR: AMINATTA FORNA'NIN “THE MEMORY OF LOVE” İSİMLİ ROMANI

Year 2018, Volume: 58 Issue: 1, 1045 - 1057, 01.01.2018

Merve Sarıkaya-şen

Abstract

Aminatta Forna eserlerinde travma ve travmayı iyileştirme yollarıyla ilgilenmektedir. Bu doğrultuda, The Memory of Love 2010 isimli eseri, Sierra Leoneluların 1980lerde yaşadığı sosyal ve politik ayaklanmaları ve akabinde 1991’den 2002’ye kadar devam eden iç savaşın korkunç gerçekliğini yansıtarak travma ve travmayla baş etme yollarına odaklanır. Geçmiş zamanda yazılan anlatıların tersine, romanın çoğunluğu geniş zamanla yazılmıştır. Bu sayede, roman zamanı deneye tabi tutar ve okuyucuların Sierra Leone’un kaotik atmosferine tanıklık etmesini sağlar. Ayrıca, roman Sierra Leoneluların belirli bir amaç edinme ve çevreyle yakın iletişim kurma gibi travmayla baş etme stratejilerini konu edinir. Bu temellere dayanarak, bu çalışmanın amacı, romanın Sierra Leoneluların travmasını travmatik zamanın sınırları belirli olmayan özelliğini ve Sierra Leoneluların travmayla baş etme yollarını kullanarak nasıl ele aldığını incelemektir.

Keywords

Aminatta Forna, The Memory of Love, Sierra Leone, Travma, İyileşme

CORRELATIONS BETWEEN WESTERN TRAUMA POETICS AND SIERRA LEONEAN WAYS OF HEALING: AMINATTA FORNA'S THE MEMORY OF LOVE

Abstract

Aminatta Forna has been interested in the representation of trauma and ways of healing trauma in her works. Accordingly, Forna’s The Memory of Love 2010 centralises trauma and healing by reflecting on dreadful historical facts of Sierra Leoneans suffering from social and political uprisings in the 1980s and the following civil war which lasted from 1991 to 2002. The novel is written in the present tense for the greater part unlike the conventions of a narrative written in the past. In doing so, the novel experiments with time and makes readers witness the chaotic atmosphere of Sierra Leone. Besides, the novel presents non-western trauma coping strategies adopted by Sierra Leoneans such as maintaining an intact sense of purpose and establishing close contact with one’s environment. Based on these premises, the aim of this paper is to examine how the novel recounts the trauma of Sierra Leoneans through the employment of the amorphous quality of traumatic time and trauma coping strategies adopted by Sierra Leoneans.

Keywords

Aminatta Forna, The Memory of Love, Sierra Leone, Trauma, Healing

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