Unspeakable Wound: Trauma, Abjection, Dissociation and the Quest for Healing in Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl and Papillon’s An Ordinary Wonder

Abstract

Background: This essay explores The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi and An Ordinary Wonder by Buki Papillon, focusing on psychological trauma, repressive culture, and the search for healing in the African diaspora. The work centers on Otolorin Akinro, and Jessamy Harrison, examining their struggles to assert individuality while seeking a sense of belonging within their communities. Ultimately, the analysis reveals how social, familial, and colonial systems intersect to oppress these characters, severely compromising their psychological well-being.

Methodology: This comparative study conceptualizes the “wounded self” through a multifaceted theoretical lens. It draws on Cathy Caruth’s trauma theory, Julia Kristeva’s abjection, Susan Rubin Suleiman’s dissociation, and Sayantani DasGupta’s critiques of medical imperialism, placing them in conversation with indigenous African healing epistemologies.

Results: The findings indicate that systemic expectations and historical violence precipitate profound alienation. Jessamy is isolated from her Yoruba heritage and subjected to a pathologizing Western medical gaze. Consequently, her crisis manifests through a spectral twin, resulting in a Gothic tragedy. In contrast, Otolorin engages directly with traditional Yoruba cosmological healing. This approach successfully resists clinical categorization and allows for the active integration of their dissociated identities.

Conclusion: This paper examines how African diasporic individuals navigate conflicted postcolonial settings. Through Otolorin, whose resistance to assimilation symbolizes defiance, trauma is reframed from shame into liberation. Textual analysis demonstrates how cultural and colonial violence constrains non-conforming lives and that ultimately advocates for healing strategies rooted in indigenous knowledge systems.