Panopticism In Bashir’s Scattered Souls: A Trauma Study

Abstract

Kashmir is a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since partition which resulted in massacres, lynching, and molestation of Kashmiris. Bleeding Kashmir has raised the rage, rebelliousness, resistance and trauma etc among the masses which Shahnaz Bashir has represented very deftly and realistically in his work Scattered Souls. The dark and gloomy atmosphere of Kashmir has distorted the psyche of its inhabitants and the despotism is driving Kashmiris to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This research shows the imbalance of power between Kashmiris and Indians and how it affects the life of people at different grounds in the context of the trauma theory in the selected Kashmiri fiction. Through different stories, the author reveals the unending pain, chaos, rebelliousness and degradation in Kashmir due to panoptic situation. The study evaluates Kashmiris in a dictatorial territory as Shahnaz Bashir's narrative explores how traumatized people describe the depredations and barbaric environment with the help of Judith Herman and Cathy Caruth’s trauma theories with the views of Freud. This research is analytical and descriptive in its approach.