Psychoanalytic and Cultural Mappings: Love and Madness in Bano Qudsia’s Raja Gidh
Ghazala Khan
Raghib-ul Haque
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11409329
Abstract:
Through the scope of a psychoanalytic lens, humans are described as having sexual and aggressive drives. Psychoanalytic theorists believe that human behavior is deterministic. It is governed by irrational forces, and the unconscious, as well as instinctual and biological drives.
When certain aspirations and strong desires remain fulfilled and repressed, they manifest themselves in the form of unusual behavior patterns, dreams and subversive desires. In many cases, “several patients suffer from traumatic neurosis” (Freud 6). Pakistani writer and playwright, Bano Qudsia, is most popularly remembered for her novel Raja Gidh (King Vulture; 1981), remarkable for its allegory, socio-cultural aspects and psychoanalytic tendencies. Raja Gidh focuses on the discourse of madness. Several dialogues in the text give insight into the understating ideas of mental trauma; madness and insanity are emphasized by Professor Sohail. A section in the text is devoted to the beast fable where discourse is used for emphasizing the reason behind madness. Raja Gidh connects madness with unfulfilled desires and unrequited love. This paper focuses on the idea of madness with particular reference to Raja Gidh. It reads how madness can be connected to cultural and social tropes that condition our understanding of moral ethics, social reality and, right and wrong. It explores these ideas in detail by focusing on behavior and dreams (dreams manifest latent fears in the unconscious minds) of the characters like Qayum and Seemi Shah.
Works cited:
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