The Fractured Self: A Postcolonial and Psychoanalytical Study of Intergenerational Trauma in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Novels Independence and Before we Visit the Goddess

Abstract

This paper explores the multifaceted nature of postcolonial displacement and psychoanalytic theories focusing on the intergenerational trauma in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novels Independence(2023) and Before We Visit The Goddess(2016).By examining the characters across multiple generations – from rural Bengal of the 1940s to the America – the study analyses how the historical upheavals such as the partition of India and the personal displacement brings psychic ruptures. Using Frantz Fanon’s postcolonial insights and Freudian/Jungian psychoanalytic frameworks, the presentation discusses how trauma is unconsciously transmitted from mothers to daughters, manifesting as a struggle for identity and independence.