A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s <i>The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda</i>

Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16

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A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda

Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde

Published in International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis (Volume 7, Issue 1)

Received: 18 March 2021 Accepted: 2 April 2021 Published: 30 June 2021

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Abstract

This essay is a psychological discourse of genocide and its traumatic effects on the author, fictional characters and readers in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda. Memory is the essential aspect of the psychological discourse that Tadjo employs as a tunnel connecting the past to the present. The fiction exposes how the genocide causes personal turmoil that creates psychological and emotional breakdown among the victims. The objectives of the study were to examine how the lives of the victims of the war and even survivors had been beaten horribly out of shape by the constant blow of inhumanity. It also examined the application of memory as cathartic in the process of bringing healing to a chaotic and traumatic past and as the individual’s means of coming to term with personal, family, social and political experiences that have refused to be harmonized into an acceptable past. The paper specifically deployed the Charles Mauron’s pschocriticism, a variant of Sigmud’s psychoanalysis, to unravel the mimetic and cathartic representation of dreams and tortures as revealed by metaphors and symbols in the memoir. These metaphorical networks are significant for latent inner realities. The study concluded that the cruelty and human brutality of the genocide in Rwanda exceeded worst expectations. The author aroused the psychological emotions of the fictional characters and transfers same to the readers by creating a cinematographic account of the horrible situation. It also reveals how memory and imaginative fiction are interwoven to provide a connection between the past and present.

Published in	International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16
Page(s)	35-40
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Psychocriticism, Genocide, Trauma, Characters, Metafiction

References

[1]	Abrams, M & Harpham G. 2005. A glossary of literary terms. Canada: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.
[2]	African Fiction and Religion/encyclopedia.com http//www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopediasalmanacs retrieved 29^th March, 2021.
[3]	Akinwale, Buari. 2020. Identity Construction and Reconstruction in Mandela’s long walk to Freedom and Hitler’s Mein kampe. Ph.D Protocol submitted to Dept. of English, University of Ilorin.
[4]	Caruth, C (1996) Unexpected Experience: Trauma, Narrative and History.baltimore: John Hopkin University press.
[5]	Chabwera, Elinettie. 2008.“Review of Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda”. In Ernest E. (ed). War in African Literature Today. London: James Curry.
[6]	Currie, Ian. 2016. Re-membering in stormy time: Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda. South Africa: University of Witwatersrand, Department of Literature, Media and Film Studies.
[7]	Daniel, F. 2018. The image of Africa as memory and Insight in African American Poetry: An appraisal of Yusuf Komunyakka’s New Poems. An unpublished Seminal paper, Ahmadu Bello University, Dept. of English, Zaria.
[8]	Fornari, Franco (2018) The Psychoanalysis of War. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
[9]	Kennedy J & Giora, D. 2002 An Introduction to Fiction. London: Longman 8^th (ed).
[10]	Mauron, C. 1963. Psychocriticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/psychanalytic_criticism
[11]	Mark, E. 2018. “Studies in postcolonial African Novels.” In Journal of Pan African Studies. Vol. 9, no. 10 March.
[12]	Nwanku, C. 2008. “The muted index of war in African literature and society”. In War in African Literature Today.
[13]	Nyairo, Elizabeth. 2018. “Of National Longing and of the Antinomies of the Postcolonial Nation: The Case of Eric wainina’s Sawa Sawa”. An unpublished Seminal paper, Department of Philosophy, Makerere University, Uganda.
[14]	Psychoanalytic literary criticism Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/psychanalytic_criticism Retrieved 10th Feb, 2021
[15]	Rwanda Genocide Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda_genocideRetrieved 10th Feb, 2021.
[16]	Tadjo, V. 2002. The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda. Essex: Heinemann.

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Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde. (2021). A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda. International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis, 7(1), 35-40. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16

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Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde. A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda. Int. J. Sci. Qual. Anal. 2021, 7(1), 35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16

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Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde. A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda. Int J Sci Qual Anal. 2021;7(1):35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16,
  author = {Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde},
  title = {A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda},
  journal = {International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {35-40},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijsqa.20210701.16},
  abstract = {This essay is a psychological discourse of genocide and its traumatic effects on the author, fictional characters and readers in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda. Memory is the essential aspect of the psychological discourse that Tadjo employs as a tunnel connecting the past to the present. The fiction exposes how the genocide causes personal turmoil that creates psychological and emotional breakdown among the victims. The objectives of the study were to examine how the lives of the victims of the war and even survivors had been beaten horribly out of shape by the constant blow of inhumanity. It also examined the application of memory as cathartic in the process of bringing healing to a chaotic and traumatic past and as the individual’s means of coming to term with personal, family, social and political experiences that have refused to be harmonized into an acceptable past. The paper specifically deployed the Charles Mauron’s pschocriticism, a variant of Sigmud’s psychoanalysis, to unravel the mimetic and cathartic representation of dreams and tortures as revealed by metaphors and symbols in the memoir. These metaphorical networks are significant for latent inner realities. The study concluded that the cruelty and human brutality of the genocide in Rwanda exceeded worst expectations. The author aroused the psychological emotions of the fictional characters and transfers same to the readers by creating a cinematographic account of the horrible situation. It also reveals how memory and imaginative fiction are interwoven to provide a connection between the past and present.},
 year = {2021}
}

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Author Information

Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde

Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

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APA Style

Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde. (2021). A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda. International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis, 7(1), 35-40. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16

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ACS Style

Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde. A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda. Int. J. Sci. Qual. Anal. 2021, 7(1), 35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16

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AMA Style

Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde. A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda. Int J Sci Qual Anal. 2021;7(1):35-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16

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@article{10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16,
  author = {Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde},
  title = {A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda},
  journal = {International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {35-40},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijsqa.20210701.16},
  abstract = {This essay is a psychological discourse of genocide and its traumatic effects on the author, fictional characters and readers in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda. Memory is the essential aspect of the psychological discourse that Tadjo employs as a tunnel connecting the past to the present. The fiction exposes how the genocide causes personal turmoil that creates psychological and emotional breakdown among the victims. The objectives of the study were to examine how the lives of the victims of the war and even survivors had been beaten horribly out of shape by the constant blow of inhumanity. It also examined the application of memory as cathartic in the process of bringing healing to a chaotic and traumatic past and as the individual’s means of coming to term with personal, family, social and political experiences that have refused to be harmonized into an acceptable past. The paper specifically deployed the Charles Mauron’s pschocriticism, a variant of Sigmud’s psychoanalysis, to unravel the mimetic and cathartic representation of dreams and tortures as revealed by metaphors and symbols in the memoir. These metaphorical networks are significant for latent inner realities. The study concluded that the cruelty and human brutality of the genocide in Rwanda exceeded worst expectations. The author aroused the psychological emotions of the fictional characters and transfers same to the readers by creating a cinematographic account of the horrible situation. It also reveals how memory and imaginative fiction are interwoven to provide a connection between the past and present.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Psychological Discourse of Genocide in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda
AU  - Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde
Y1  - 2021/06/30
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16
T2  - International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis
JF  - International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis
JO  - International Journal of Science and Qualitative Analysis
SP  - 35
EP  - 40
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2469-8164
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsqa.20210701.16
AB  - This essay is a psychological discourse of genocide and its traumatic effects on the author, fictional characters and readers in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the heart of Rwanda. Memory is the essential aspect of the psychological discourse that Tadjo employs as a tunnel connecting the past to the present. The fiction exposes how the genocide causes personal turmoil that creates psychological and emotional breakdown among the victims. The objectives of the study were to examine how the lives of the victims of the war and even survivors had been beaten horribly out of shape by the constant blow of inhumanity. It also examined the application of memory as cathartic in the process of bringing healing to a chaotic and traumatic past and as the individual’s means of coming to term with personal, family, social and political experiences that have refused to be harmonized into an acceptable past. The paper specifically deployed the Charles Mauron’s pschocriticism, a variant of Sigmud’s psychoanalysis, to unravel the mimetic and cathartic representation of dreams and tortures as revealed by metaphors and symbols in the memoir. These metaphorical networks are significant for latent inner realities. The study concluded that the cruelty and human brutality of the genocide in Rwanda exceeded worst expectations. The author aroused the psychological emotions of the fictional characters and transfers same to the readers by creating a cinematographic account of the horrible situation. It also reveals how memory and imaginative fiction are interwoven to provide a connection between the past and present.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
ER  -

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