TRACING TRAUMA, AND RESISTANCE IN THEY CALLED ME A LIONESS: A PALESTINIAN GIRLS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

Abstract

This study aims to trace the impact of personal trauma on the character of Ahed, the narrator and the cowriter of memoir, They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom. Personal trauma of the protagonist is analyzed as timeless, repetitious, and unspeakable by employing Cathy Caruth’s theoretical paradigm as presented in Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History. This research also uses LaCapra’s concepts as discussed in Writing History, Writing Trauma to study mechanisms of “acting out” and “working through” which are adopted by Ahed in the memoir. LaCapra’s notions are used to study political, social and cultural facets of the trauma of the protagonist. The novel is studied as an articulation of trauma that is triggered by violence and suppression of Israeli colonials. Research paradigm is qualitative and textual analysis of the selected novel is undertaken to study colonial Apartheid and the interrelatedness of traumatic narratives and actual experiences of the author by tracing the cultural and historical aspects of personal trauma.

Keywords:  Acting out, Working through, Repetitious, Unspeakable, Timeless