The Legacy of Transgenerational Trauma: A Qualitative Study of Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees

Abstract

Elif Shafak is regarded as one of the most acclaimed authors of the twenty-first-century Turkish literature. Her works are authentic and distinctive, and most of her characters personify the enigma of displacement and the ensuing trauma–an experience that Shafak herself encountered. The protagonist of the novel, Defne, grapples helplessly with her past after being uprooted from her motherland, and this hinders her ability to live a pleasant life in the present. Defne, a native of the war-torn Cyprus, is burdened by displacement, and she bears the brunt of the past that ruthlessly infiltrates her present. Another appalling impact of displacement is that not only does the victim undergo the traumatic trials but the repercussions are also transferred to the succeeding generations. This paper tries to explore the magnitude of such an impact as well. Taking recourse to the metaphor, “the Sword of Damocles,” which exactly expresses the emotional turmoil that endangers Defne’s life, this paper examines how the past wreaks havoc on her existence and how her tribulations are transferred to the succeeding generation, Ada, her daughter. Though Defne wrestles with her daunting images and emotions of the past, helplessly anticipating recovery, the octopus-like grip of the past crushes and suffocates her to death. In the light of the novel’s events, the paper chronicles the interconnected sequences of forced displacement, the gradual but lethal progression to the disruption of one's self, and the culmination in the form of the disintegration of her mind and body.