Trauma And The Female Body: An Analysis Of Warsan Shire’S Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth

Abstract

This research investigates the use of body images in expressing trauma in Warsan Shire‘s poetry collection Teaching My Mother how to Give Birth (2011). It explores the use of female body images and their significance in the poems. The aim of the study was to identify various structural and stylistic elements used in the poetry. It further explored the dominance of female body images in the poems. This was done to analyze how this gendered aspect contributes to the representation of trauma. The study was carried out using formalist and feminist theoretical frameworks. Formalist theoretical perspective emphasizes on the importance of the form of a literary work. It involves a close reading of a literary text in this instance poetry with emphasis placed on the use of stylistic devices. Feminist theoretical perspective is concerned with the way feminine consciousness is portrayed in literature viewing it as an agent for social transformation. In the poems studied for this research the trauma is presented as embodied in the female form. There is a link between the female body and the expression of distressing situations with a special focus on how it affects the society, family and most importantly women. This is then used to illustrate the wider effects on the community. In many ways the women depicted in the poems are seen to be negotiating and questioning their personal yearnings, self-identity, contradictions in society and conflict. In this research, I tested the hypothesis that Shire chooses to use the body to embody traumatic experiences and that these particular events occur on the female body. I have demonstrated the confirmation of both hypotheses. The theoretical perspectives of formalism and feminism played a significant role in proving these hypotheses right.