VOICES OF THE TRAUMA: A DISSECTION OF ISLAND OF A THOUSAND MIRRORS BY NAYOMI MUNAWEERA

Social exclusion on the basis of factors like race, ethnicity, gender, culture, sexuality and class in a nation can be seen as internal colonization. Oppression of marginalized necessitates movements of resistance by the oppressed. The conflict between two races for the supremacy over land results in the dissection of the community into two as a result of which resentment or hatred is spread among those who once lived as brothers and sisters. Refugees are created in such brutal battles whose selves get dissected when they really belong nowhere, neither in their past space or new shelter. A threatening question of identity is posed before those people with torn selves. The Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera gives us an account of the long and brutal civil war in Srilanka. The novel narrates the burden of exile and belonging and the harsh demands of survival. In the novel which tells about the ethnic conflict in Srilanka, violence has occupied an important place. This novel is a haunting tale of lives distorted by terrible violence. The level of victimization which is the resultant factor of ethnic conflict is vividly described in this book. The paper aims to analyze the concepts of refugee by applying refugee theory. Traumatic experiences of the victims of the ethnic conflict also form the subject of analysis. This paper thus dissects the dissected selves of the characters in the novel by examining the wounded psyche of the two important characters.