Omar M Abdullah

Abstract
Post-Apartheid South Africa is torn because of maladies such as violence, rape, xenophobia economic decline, poverty and corruption to name a few. As a result, people mainly women, suffered and this consequent suffering is reflected in the writings of South African men and women. Trauma is a great problem that renders women weak and defenseless. Normally, trauma is a concomitant byproduct that accompanies rape and overrides women and renders them vulnerable for a quite long time but this is not the case in Kopano Matlwa’s Evening Primrose. The paper explores trauma and rape as represented in the heroine who suffered due to several reasons, among which is a gang rape. This paper hinges on Caruth’s concept of trauma and Dominick LaCapra’s reading of ‘working through’ as a concept applied to Evening Primrose. The paper concludes that the heroine has worked through all her problems and managed to rid herself from her grief and achieved a normal life.

The research investigates the traumatic triggers in the poetry of Stanely Kunitz who in
spite of his creativity received little attention. His father`s suicide shortly before his
birth left a scare in his childhood and makes his poetry fertile arena for investigation of
trauma since his poetry is rich with anger, insecurity, need, depression and flashbacks.
The suicide left deep impact on his soul. His attempt to face this wound failed due to
his mother`s attempts to deaden any memory of the bygone father and cut the link that
may bridge the damage in his soul. This creates a crack in Kunitz `s molding of
character. As such, his return to his roots is traced in this research depending on the
illumination of theory of trauma through exploring the symptoms and experiences of
trauma in selected poems. Manifestations of traumatic aspects are apparent in Kunitz
poetry which lie hidden in his consciousness to reappear clearly in his maturity . The
uniqueness with Kunitz is his indulgence in trauma and his employment of a perfect
way of recovery by re-visiting the roots of his pain.
Keywords: Stanely Kunitz, trauma, depression, memory

Hysteria is read as 'the female malady', a disease or sickness women suffer from. This reading could be one among other such readings that construe hysteria as a transgressive force by which women achieve or regain some lost desire. Luce Irigaray considers hysteria as a non-verbal language employed as a form of protest against patriarchal law which is instrumental in bequeathing hysteric symptoms to women. Constant fear, disturbed sleep, marginalization, trauma … etc., are products of patriarchy which manifest in women. The heroine in Fay Weldon's Praxis also suffers similar symptoms. Irigaray's reading of hysteria with sub-concepts of Mimicry and Masquerade will help to explore and reveal hysteria as a transgressive means by which women fight for their existence and attain their desires. This reading is applied to Weldon's novel to reveal how the protagonist managed to construct an identity she strived for through hysteria. Introduction Fay Weldon's popularity comes from her comic and playful style which captures critics' attention. More elaborately, Allen Massie in judging the British novel from 1970 to 1989 confirms that Weldon's clarity and " ruthlessness of vision " in her novels of the seventies embody the sharpest statement of feminist stand in British fiction (1990, 38). Her novels mostly deal with subjects of infidelity, marriage, sexual initiation, divorce, motherhood, housework (Krouse 1978, 5). She tries hard to find ways to help her characters; rebel, breakout, revolutionize and renounce the role of the victim in order to find their identity. While doing so, they may resort to hysteria as a weapon and abjection as a remedy to create that long-lost identity. Weldon states " We women, we beggars, we scrubbers and dusters, we do the best we can for us and ours. We are divided amongst ourselves.

Ian McEwan is one of the modernist writers who utilises new and uncommon ways of
narrating. We find him dealing with history, wars and social themes, all knitted together in
a manoeuvring way. The unreliable narrator, a technique he employs, is an innovation first
seen in the modern era in Wayne C. Booth’s ‘The Rhetoric of Fiction’ in 1961. McEwan’s
employment of this technique is an issue needing further analysis. In ‘Atonement’, his
character Briony, who is still a child, narrates parts of the novel but her narration is
questioned, for she might not be truthful or honest. Her being unreliable adds much to the
novel and affects the fates of her sister Cecelia and the latter’s lover, Robbie. It is not only
a matter of telling the story, it also interferes in the discourse of the action and propels
the events in a different direction. As a result, it seems dubious to give the role of talking
to a character (Briony) to narrate and cope with events, and so her telling is questioned
to a certain extent because the events she narrates are deceitful on the one hand, while
on the other, she is too young and hard to be trusted. The present paper attempts to read
‘Atonement’ from a new perspective and show what is meant by an unreliable narrator and
how this technique is employed. How significant is the technique in terms of recounting the
events in a piece of fiction? This paper illustrates the significance of the aforementioned
technique, which adds new understanding to the reading of McEwan’s ‘Atonement’.

Julia Kristeva's semiotic and symbolic poles of language deal with the affective and denotative aspects of language. Through
the semiotic aspect of language, the inner desires and impulses are expressed whereas the linguistic and grammatical aspects
are revealed through the symbolic aspect of language. These two poles of language are inseparable and their meaning can
only be conveyed when juxtaposed. The current article will shed light on John Donne's three selected poems, A Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning, The Canonization and The Good Morrow in the light of Kristeva's semiotic and symbolic. Through his
poems, Donne expresses his love for his beloved through the language of poetry which allows the expression of unspeakable
emotions. The paper will indicate how language of poetry and the two poles of semiotic and symbolic helped Donne to vocalize
his inner self. As a result, metaphor, alliteration and other poetical devices which are part of the semiotic aspect of language,
will be analyzed in these three selected poems.