Trauma can span generations. It is not an individual psychological phenomenon, nor one that goes away after the traumatic threat has ended. These facts are established in the psychological community but need to be looked at further by those who study trauma as it relates to postcolonial theory. Postcolonial trauma affects millions of people in postcolonial societies, even long after colonial rule.

Through hereditary trauma, family units feel the lasting weight of colonization, which can negatively affect a family’s psychology. Three literary works have shown this theory: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus, Mai Der Vang’s book of poems Afterland, and lê thi diem thúy’s novel The Gangster We are All Looking For. Purple Hibiscus is bildungsroman novel about a young girl, Kambili, living in an abusive household in Nigeria. Afterland is a collection of poems about the Hmong people’s displacement from Laos after the Vietnam War. The Gangster We are All Looking For is the story of a young Vietnamese immigrant whose family has fled to San Diego.

Each of these texts deals with the psychological aftereffects of colonialism. They explore trauma as it relates to the family, both ancestral and living. These texts are examples of how familial ties are shaped and defined by postcolonial trauma. Each text shows through vivid imagery and characterization how colonial violence spans generations, and how necessary transgenerational narratives are to our understanding of postcolonial and trauma theory.

Colonialism is inherently intergenerational, and I argue that postcolonial studies and trauma theory are necessarily intertwined. It is impossible to explore postcolonialism without recognizing the hereditary nature of postcolonial trauma and the effects this trauma has on families today. I explore critical perspectives of postcolonial theory, psychological theory surrounding family trauma, and literary criticism in order to suggest that the motif of family in these texts is used to explore trauma responses to past and current psychological effects of colonization.

Keywords: Family, Trauma, Motif, Postcolonial

Works Cited:

Abubakar, Sadiya. “Traumatic Experiences of Nigerian Women: An Archetypal Representation in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus.” IRA-International Journal of Management & Social Sciences (ISSN 2455-2267) [Online], Vol. 4.3, 2016.

Adichie, Chimamanda N. Purple Hibiscus: A Novel. New York: Anchor Books, 2004. Print.

Bhattcharjee, Partha, and Priyanka Tripathi. “Ethnic Tensions and Political Turmoil: Postcolonial Reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus.” Language in India, vol. 17, no. 3, Mar. 2017, p. 433.

Ha, Quan Manh. “Conspiracy of Silence and New Subjectivity in Monkey Bridge and The Gangster We Are All Looking For,” Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 3, 2013.