Pratishi Hazarika
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Tezpur University, Assam, Email id: pratishihazarika@gmail.com, ORCID id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7026-1124
Volume 13, Number 1, 2021 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n1.20
Examining the Nuances of Trauma Through a Survivor’s Testimony: A Study of A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi: A Candid Biography of India’s First Transgender Principal by Manobi Bandyopadhyay with Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey
Abstract
The transgender community in India is a marginalized social group that lacks the basic human rights and privileges granted to the cisgender and heterosexual subjects in society. Due to their non-conforming gender and sexual identity, transgender individuals are labeled as deviant, abnormal and diseased in society that has adverse effects on their psyche, making them prone to suicidal thoughts, acute depression and anxiety. This study aims to analyze the trauma endured by transgender individuals and its never-ending effects on their psychological health, through a re-reading of Manobi Bandyopadhyay’s biography, titled, A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi: A Candid Biography of India’s First Transgender Principal (2017) by Bandyopadhyay with Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey. It shall also explore how the trauma experienced by transgender people in society is of two folds- bodily trauma and mental trauma which demands an integrated approach, as applied in the study. The methodology of close reading of the selected text shall be combined with the framework of trauma psychology and transgender studies, to conduct the study. The significance of this paper rests in the absence of a comprehensive literary study, in the mentioned area.
Keywords: Trauma, Transgender people, Stigma, Mental Health