TRAUMA, REMINISCENCESAND THE MEMORY SYMBOLINSELECTED CHARACTERS IN ABUBAKAR ADAM IBRAHIM’S SEASON OF CRIMSON BLOSSOMS

Abstract

Literature captures and re-echoes reality and its intricacies in whatever society it is located. Thus, this essay investigates the relationship between Literature and Society using psychoanalytic literary criticism to examine Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Season of Crimson Blossoms. The study adopts the Freudian strand of psychoanalysis, with much attention to the conscious and unconscious tenets, to explore what results to neurosis, obsession, depression, trauma amongst other psychoanalytic issues in the texts. The study is fore grounded on the premise that so far, the literary canon the writer of the text represents has underscored the psychological dimensions of their literatures. Hence, general attention is always appropriated to the socio-political, historical and other such motifs, other than the psychological. By ascribing central importance to the indices that Freudian psychoanalysis has a place in the criticism of the novel. The essay finds that issues that insinuate bigotry like, political, religious, social, and otherwise as seen in the text can be explored via an exploration of the inner recesses of the characters psyche and the elements that underlie them. Thus, the study concludes that humans should not be judged on the premises of their actions or inactions whether negative or positive, or from mere political, social and economic perspectives. Rather a journey into their psyche to ascertain experiences that inform their individual personalities should be key in figuring who/what these people are or become.