SILENCED MINDS: GENDERED TRAUMA AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FRAGMENTATION IN MODERN ENGLISH FICTION

Abstract

Having a gendered oppressing and psychological nullification of women, their mental health image is most commonly shown in the English fiction of the modern period. This paper addresses social surveillance, heteronormative expectation and the patriarchal norms as the method of silencing and indentured disintegration of female subjectivity. Intersectional feminist perspective on the selected works, namely The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and The Hours by Michael Cunningham, will be used to privy peep the critical examination of the chosen works to analyze the constructive narration of the trauma, depression and identity crisis against gendered structures of power. The study has found out the prevalent themes of silence, confinement, the dislocation of time and fragmented selfhood on close textual examination and the theoretical factor through the feminist and trauma studies. It also reveals how a form of narratives is even a manifestation of psychological discontinuity, which proves the thematic concern of fractured consciousness. The paper wraps up by claiming that the modern English fiction writing is a critical site of revelation of the psychological outpours of patriarchy and the offer of spaces where the other articulation of opposition to the marginalized female experiences can be made possible.