Trauma and Psychic Growth of the Self in Susan Abulhawa's Mornings in Jenin

Abstract

This study delves deep into the traumatic experience that almost all Palestinians have fallen prey to since the day Israel declared statehood in 1948 and how such tragic life characterized their psychic growth of the self and identity. It considers Susan Abulhawa's Mornings in Jenin in the light of two psychological notions, that is, Freud's ''the unconscious'' and McAdams's and Cox's ''narrative identity.'' Throughout the novel, Abulhawa unearths the unusual and less known depths in Palestinian history in an attempt to provide new versions of fictional writings. The novel dramatizes the Palestinian characters' inner world, their trauma and their repressed feelings and desires. The repeated incursion of trauma is considered harmful, giving rise to the characters' downfall and being the reason behind their tragedies. The study has shown that the world of the unconscious is clearly represented in the characters' attitudes, behaviors and feelings. It elucidates that some characters succeed in working through their traumas and the dynamics of the unconscious while the others are rendered to be psychologically traumatized. Furthermore, to serve a self-understanding function, Palestinians rely on the strategy of storytelling. Such strategy is used as an empowering device by which Palestinians write their past and guarantee their self-existence. It can also be therapeutic that they use it as a remedy against the displacement and alienation they experience in their permanent exile.