Exhuming Trauma, Fear and Hatred beyond Borders: A Freudian Psychoanalysis of Sylvia Plath and Parveen Shakir’s Poetry

Poets Perspective towards Social Problems

Abstract

Background: This article dives into the raw, often painful worlds of Sylvia Plath and Parveen Shakir, exploring how trauma, fear, and hatred grew in their hauntingly stunning poetry. By using the lens of Freudian psychology, this research digs up ghosts in both poetesses’ writings which are hidden forces like the death force and repressed recollections. On one hand, Plath wrestled with self-destruction and own family struggle using a sharp language that cuts like a knife. On the other hand, Shakir navigated the sensitive stability of choice and heartbreak in the strict social obstacles of South Asian context.

Objective: To examine manifestations of repression, ambivalence, melancholia, and the death drive in selected texts of both authors.

Methodology: Methodology under the lens of psychoanalytical theory is adopted to demystify trauma, melancholia fear and hatred in the poetry of selected poetesses.

Results: The findings of this study indicate that trauma does not care about obstacles of languages and borders rather it is transcendental. Whether it ends in the annihilation we see in Plath’s work or the unending longing located in Shakir’s, the archetype is the same: a haunted human soul seeking to make sense of an apocalyptic world. It is vivid through their work at the same time thoughts may be in a conflict or repetition compulsion, it is art that plays the role of a bridge to cross over from apocalyptic world to a balanced life. Their poetry is not an ordinary bunch of words; it is proof of a series of human existence through which they provide a meaningful language to reflect and understand us. 

Conclusion: This article concludes that both Sylvia Plath and Parveen Shakir have been navigating the equally deep and frequently wild forces of human heart. By applying Freudian psychoanalytic lens, this paper explored how the subconscious techniques, old wounds, invisible fears and demise pressure build and shape rhythm and imagery in their poetry.