A STUDY OF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN MEMORY AND TRAUMA IN CLARRISA DALLOWAY AND SEPTIMUS WARREN SMITH IN 'MRS. DALLOWAY' AND ' HOUSE OF SECRETS: THE BURARI DEATHS'
When we look at memory and trauma literature through
the cultural studies lens, we look at how memory and trauma interact and how
the culture of memory and trauma is created, maintained, shared and reproduced
in literary texts and mass media. But how memory and trauma is culture?
Reminiscing the interplay of social, political and economic temper of the time,
memory and trauma literature carve a cultural space that focuses on identifying
the systems of oppressions and resistance. Thus, being more than a ‘text’
written to depict a singular experience, it strives to convey the pervasive
culture of the time. But what is culture? How do we define it? At its core,
cultural studies are an interdisciplinary field of academic study that looks at
how culture is created, maintained, shared and reproduced and how this process
influences and is influenced by structures of power in society. We will come to
this in detail in the subsequent paragraphs. Viewing culture as a way of life
that is always in process, we have taken up for analysis the novel Mrs.
Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and the web series House of Secrets: The Burari
Deaths aired on Netflix.
Published on 1925, Mrs. Dalloway is a novel by Virginia
Woolf set in post- First World War England. The action takes place on a day in
‘the middle of June ‘of 1923. It is an example of stream of consciousness
technique aside from flashbacks. The bulk of the novel is spent mainly on two
characters: Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith. Both the characters
shift back and forth in time recollecting memories of loss which they keep
returning to while staying in the present. Clarissa, reminiscing about her
past, has decided to throw a party that day later in the evening. Conscious of
her role in London High society, she wonders about her choice of husband and
her youth in Bourton. Septimus Warren Smith suffering from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) is tortured by frequent hallucinations of his friend
Evans who died in the war. Committed to a psychiatric clinic later, he commits
suicide by jumping out of the window. Septimus’s presence in London is unknown
until his suicide that became a topic of idle chatter in the evening at
Clarrisa’s party. Woolf through Clarrisa and Septimus criticize the culturally
prescribed societal norms and power structures that had been in the working in
the marginalization of war veterans resulting in the dismissal of Septimus’
illness as being merely shell-shocked and in containing the reality of his
affliction. Through her novel, Woolf, made sure that the ripples of the war are
still felt. A reminder of First World War, PTSD was an important addition to
the early 20th century canon of post-war British literature making
Modernist literature is a literature of trauma. The inability to communicate
one’s experiences requires the need to give meaning to one’s suffering which is
important in recovering from the trauma.
In extending our study to explore the intersection and
interaction of memory and trauma further, ‘House of Secrets: The Burari
Deaths’, a three-part documentary aired on Netflix in 2021 aims to enrich our
understanding of the intricate relationship between memory and trauma. At its
core, the role of Lalit Chundawat in orchestrating the mass suicide throws
light to the mechanisms through which he navigated the aftermath of a series of
traumatic experiences. The coping strategies, memorialization practices, and
the transmission of memory across the three generations found an expression in
social and cultural practices of Global South Hindus: the alleged ritual of
‘badh tapasya’, banyan tree worship. Belief in the occult, seeking solace in
spirituality, maintaining registers, indoctrination and certain compliance
rituals provide an adequate framework to study the complex interplay of social,
political, psychological and cultural factors. In the cusps of vulnerability,
Lalit oscillated between the psychological and supernatural realms. In
internalizing his father, he represents the mass resisting to talk about mental
health. The unsettling incident even opens the door for the study of the Hindu
joint family system. Furthermore, the law safeguarding ‘religion of one’s
choice’ in Article 25 comes into direct conflict with the fundamental duty of
developing a ‘scientific temper’ in Article 51 A. Such paradox is a breeding
ground for orthodoxy inhibiting social reforms. Opening new perspectives, we
will also look into the banyan tree as an archetype. The bizarre twist given to
the rich national symbol betrays the Upanishads which upholds the tree
signifying the pursuit of knowledge. Given the country’s colonial history, the
accident risks in reverberating the European viewpoint of the Orient as
‘snake-charmers’. But it does impel memory and trauma to be viewed outside the
Euro-American historical framework. Nevertheless, this unique narrative tells
the tale of an extraordinary tragedy that will resound through time and space.