8/13/2024 10:30:49 PM

INTERACTION BETWEEN MEMORY AND TRAUMA THROUGH CULTURAL STUDIES LENS IN SEPTIMUS WARREN SMITH AND CLARISSA DALLOWAY IN VIRGINIA WOOLF'S MRS DALLOWAY AND LALIT CHUNDAWAT IN HOUSE OF SECRETS: 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.


Pic Courtesy: Stenzel Clinical Services