Domestic Violence and Trauma in Postcolonial Fiction: Feminist Perspectives on Walker, Adichie, and Roy

Abstract

This paper explores domestic violence and trauma within The Color purple by Walker, Purple Hibiscus by Adichie, and The God of Small Things by Roy through the lens of the patriarchal norms, social hierarchy and cultural set up contribute towards committing physical, psychological, economic, and sexual abuse and hence, the experience of the female, as well as the inhibition of agency. The study adopted a comparative approach to literary analysis, grounded in a feminist perspective, trauma studies, and intersectionality, to examine narrative strategies, character, and how abuse is addressed, using the main quotations from the chosen readings. These novels, the research indicates, expose power inequalities across gender, the absence of social and legal mechanisms to address the issue of abuse, female resistance, perseverance, and survival. The conclusion attracts attention to the fact that it is not just a representation of how such people experience domestic violence when it comes to postcolonial literature, but also aims at questioning structural oppression as a way of showing the complexity of female subjectivity. The research is an addition to the feminist literature and introduces new information on violence, trauma, and agency in the context of social, cultural, and legal hierarchies.

Keywords: domestic violence, trauma, feminist criticism, postcolonial literature, agency, resilience