Shades of Trauma in Selected Nigerian Novels

Abstract

The evolving critical attention on contemporary Nigerian literature in general and the novel in particular focus more on the themes of military and political misrule, corruption, gender issues and other social ills. Little attention has been paid to the traumas which these ills have caused the Nigerian citizens. Therefore, this study focuses on shades of trauma in selected Nigerian novels. The selected novels which form our primary data are, Helon Habila’s Waiting for an Angel (2002), Sefi Atta’s Everything Good will Come (2005) and Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow (2006). The study adopts psychological theories as its theoretical framework. This is in a bid to situate the analysis of the consequences of actions and roles of the Nigerian leaders on its citizens. Findings reveal that the oppressive nature and the leadership failure of the Nigerian government are mainly responsible for the disillusionment and traumas experienced by a lot of individuals as represented in the literary texts. This has given rise to mental and psychological disability and even death among the characters in the selected texts. It then concludes that the selected texts are clear testaments of the shades of trauma experienced by the citizens as a result of the state of crisis in Nigerian society.