Helon Habila and the Trauma of Disposable People in Oil on Water

Abstract

Trauma studies are no doubt a burgeoning area of discourse that has captured the literary imagination of academic scholars for a few decades running. This study examines the complex relationship between socio-cultural influences and intimate personal relations portrayed in trauma fiction, such as Helon Habila’s Oil on Water. Specifically, how do these depictions in Habila’s fiction direct our awareness of the catastrophic effects of war, poverty, hostage-taking, and domestic abuse on the individual psyche? How do traumatised people respond? To what extent can we theorise trauma studies and ecocritical studies? How traumatised is the physical landscape portrayed in Habila’s fiction? The study concludes by insisting that governments of nations and relevant international organisations owe the people the responsibility of intentionally committing to rearticulating and rehabilitating the social conditions, voices, and, indeed, the lives of marginalised people.