The Psychological Trauma on Black Women: A Comparative Study of Walker’s Meridian and Head’s A Question of Power.

Abstract

African women have been victimized over the ages. They have been recognized as least being by the people of their own community. Black women were symbolized in the way of the suppressed class and have always been a subject of men’s superiority. They are oppressed as well as misrepresented in the society. Women of Africa were kept dumb by which they were not able to remember the value of their self. This study is extensively based on psychoanalysis, feminism, and theories of race and gender. The objective of this paper is to highlight that how sexist and racial suppression of women of color can import an unforgettable impact on their psyches, thus firmly affecting their relation not only with the members of the community but also with their psychological honor and whole being. The main focus is placed on two African writers, Alice Walker and Bessie Head, who has represented the impact of psychological trauma through their protagonists. The critical study has been done on the two novels, Meridian and A Question of Power. The purpose of this paper is to reveal that how black women are renounced from their primitive rights, they are completely expelled from communal, economic, and constitutional rights. The elements of the psychological trauma of both the characters are examined with observance to the socio- political and historical outlook which the protagonists have to tackle in order to revive their mental health and psychological balance.