Questioning Standard Definitions of Trauma: Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) as a Literary Representation of Trauma in Transmodern Times

Duce, Violeta

Resumen: his article analyses Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) as a trauma account and transmodern narrative, highlighting the impossibility of analysing its main characters by means of the victim/perpetrator binary traditionally employed in trauma studies. Given the centrality of border crossing (physically and metaphorically) in Adichie’s narrative, and considering the present hybridity in modern societies, this essay examines the blurring of trauma categories in postcolonial scenarios where, as it will be further discussed, the individual and the collective are intrinsically connected. By addressing the novel’s diverse viewpoints, this reading of Half of a Yellow Sun emphasises the importance of a transcultural and more encompassing approach to trauma to explore the multidimensionality of war experiences in contemporary postcolonial spaces. The article concludes that Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun is a representative example of transmodern trauma fiction which responds to the destabilisation and transcending of limits that characterises present times.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1080/0013838X.2025.2520769

Año: 2025

Publicado en: English studies (Amsterdam) (2025), [22 pp.]
ISSN: 0013-838X

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FSE/H03-23R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2021-124841NB-I00

Tipo y forma: Article (PostPrint)