Violence, Religious Fanaticism and Trauma Response: A Study of Selected Nigerian Psych Fiction

Abstract

The topic of religious fanaticism and violence has become a permeating topic in several disciplines.  This study is a psychoanalytical reading of the dysfunction in  Nigerian psych fiction. It aims at understanding the representation of violence, trauma and dysfunction in the family in selected psych fiction. Focus is placed on  the impulses responsible for the actions and response  of the characters. Despite the fact that the concept of the family is culture dependent, there exists common goals and purposes among all family relationships and marriages - to procreate, for companionship,  to fulfill cultural or societal obligation, and most especially to find happiness and a sense of belonging. Regardless of these similarities among all cultures, there is a high rate of broken marriages and relationship when the family is headed by a religious fanatic. Following the ideology that literature is a representation of life, this essay aims at contributing to the discourse of violence and trauma response from the perspective of literature using the psychoanalytical theory.