Shattered Pasts, Fractured Selves: Trauma and Memory in Desirada

Maryse Conde's Desirada, published in 1997, chronicles the lives of three generations of women, Nina, Reynalda and Marie-Noelle Titane. The story begins shortly before 1928 with the birth of Nina in la Desirade, Guadeloupe, and ends in 1990s Boston with the story of Marie-Noelle. The lives of all three women are marked by separation from home, rape and sexual abuse. In this essay I shall attempt to analyze the intergenerational impact of these traumatic events on the lives of the characters. Such an analysis implies a theoretical exploration of the nature of trauma and of the structure and functioning of memory. In this, I am inspired by the works of Cathy Caruth and Dori Laub, M.D., whose work in the field of trauma theory has contributed to the re-examining of these questions that originate in psychoanalysis within the framework of literature. Nina, Reynalda and Marie-Noelle share certain events in their lives that have made an indelible mark on their being. These events are characterized by their profoundly traumatic nature. All three women are torn from the place of their birth, where, despite the harsh conditions, they feel rooted in a sense of well-being and belonging. Nina is raped and Reynalda is either molested or raped, or indeed both. Marie-Noelle escapes the violence of tape, but becomes a witness to a form of insidious sexual violence in her role as watchdog for her friend's wretched sexual activity, which is a heart-breaking attempt at procuring the necessities of everyday life. Furthermore, all three women grow up in the shadow of the missing father and, perhaps more significantly, in the shadow of the missing mother. For in the case of Reynalda and Marie-Noelle, the mothers are emotionally absent from their lives, while in the case of Nina, the mother has died. The looming presence of Il Lago di Como signals and conceals an unknowable truth about the history of the three women. It is the most significant site for the transmission of memory, as their individual encounters with it mark each woman deeply. The pathology of these three women is first and foremost characterized by a rupture in the continuity of their history, a fissure in their being, a wound on their psyche, a trauma. The American Psychiatric Association defines trauma as "an event outside the range of human experience." And indeed, all three women experience such an event, not just once, but repeatedly. All three are traumatized by having been wrested away from their homes, from the land of their birth, a place to which all show a great attachment despite the harshness of their life there. Let us look at three passages uttered by Nina, Reynalda and Marie-Noelle, respectively: Nina indulges in the following reflection, Quand je reflechis, je m'apercois que ces annees-la n'ont pas ete les plus dures de ma vie malgre le travail et la faim. J'avais ma Bonne-Maman [ ... ] Ma Bonne-Maman qui ne parlait pas beaucoup, mais qui avait toujours une douceur pour moi, cachee dans son corsage, des topinambours, un sucre a coco tete-rose, un nougat pistache. These memories are an echo of similar thoughts revealed by Reynalda, C'est a la Desirade que je suis nee. Les gens de la Guadeloupe ont une mauvaise idee de la Desirade a cause des sacripants et des lepreux qu'on y envoyait dans le temps et aussi, parce que rien n'y pousse. [ ... ] Mais pour moi, petite fille, c'etait vraiment "Desirada", ile desiree surgie sur la mer devant les yeux des marins de Christophe Colombe apres des jours et des jours. Je possedais tous ses recoins. Je respirais son odeur quand le soleil qui l'a chauffee toute la journee repose enfin sa tete au fond de l'eau. Je pouvais soulever une roche et nommer avec certitude le nom de l'insecte cache en dessous. Je connaissais ses razye. [ ... ] Elle (Nina) a donne un tour de cle a la porte et nous voila parties. Moi, j'etais a l'agonie. …