‘Push and Breathe’- A Feminine way to Tackle Violence and Trauma in the Selected Novels of Tahmima Anam and Monica Ali

Abstract

Abstract: This paper traces the instances of tackling violence and trauma with an urge to push and breathe-a labour process to deliver hope in the time of hate and gender-based violence in the novels of Tahmima Anam and Monica, two prominent writers of Bangladesh. ‘Push and breathe’ is a feminine biological experience when a woman gives birth to a life. At the time of delivery if she does not push the hurdles and the life inside her, she may collapse hence breathing gives her strength to sustain. This is not one-time process, but it demands continuous efforts to be alive and to support the baby to be alive. Episodes of carnage, harassment and women’s suppression denying all her rights interrogates woman’s identity in our time. In search of finding and constructing an identity of her choice, she often gets frustrated and doomed to trauma but narratives of these two writers pave a way out as they offer a solution to tackle this situation in a feminine way- push and breathe, give birth to a safer new world of hope, dignity and love.