From trauma to recovery : mending wounds in Kopano Matlwa’s evening primrose

Abstract EN

Post-apartheid South Africa is torn because of maladies such as violence, rape, xenophobia economic decline, poverty and corruption to name a few.

as a result, people mainly women, suffered and this consequent suffering is reflected in the writings of south African men and women.

Trauma is a great problem that renders women weak and defenseless.

normally, trauma is a concomitant byproduct that accompanies rape and overrides women and renders them vulnerable for a quite long time but this is not the case in Kopano Matlwa’s evening primrose.

the paper explores trauma and rape as represented in the heroine who suffered due to several reasons, among which is a gang rape.

this paper hinges on Caruth’s concept of trauma and Dominick Lacapra’s reading of ‘working through’ as a concept applied to evening primrose.

the paper concludes that the heroine has worked through all her problems and managed to rid herself from her grief and achieved a normal life.